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Candida auris antimicrobial discovery efforts highlighted in ContagionLive

7/5/2019

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"3 Drug Combinations Appear Effective Against C auris" by Jared Kaltwasser discussed work presented by Thea Brennan-Krohn at ASM Microbe 2019.
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Press release on combination therapy for Candida auris

6/25/2019

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BIDMC press release on poster presented by postdoctoral fellow, Thea-Brennan Krohn, at the ASM Microbe Meeting in San Francisco this past weekend!
​https://www.bidmc.org/about-bidmc/news/2019/06/combination-of-drugs-may-combat-deadly-drugresistant-fungus

"Using the inkjet technology to dispense uniform samples of C. auris into each of the 96 wells in a standard lab testing plate, Brennan-Krohn tested 10 combinations against 10 strains of C. auris, a painstaking process that would have taken at least 50 hours if done by hand. It took less than two hours in total using the inkjet dispenser for Brennan-Krohn to find three novel combinations of antifungal and antibacterial drugs that demonstrated activity against this insidious new pathogen."


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"Research May Help Rescue Antibiotics’ Effectiveness in the Face of Drug-Resistant Bacteria"

8/10/2018

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BIDMC news release on Thea's antimicrobial synergy paper:

"Bacteria—especially Gram-negative strains—are becoming increasingly resistant to current antibiotic drugs, and the development of new classes of antibiotics has slowed. Faced with these challenges, investigators are studying the potential of combination therapy, in which two or more drugs are used together to increase or restore the efficacy of both drugs against a resistant bacterial pathogen. Now new research indicates that such synergy may work even when bacteria become resistant to colistin, which is considered a treatment agent of last resort.
The findings are especially promising because recent evidence indicates the potential for rapid worldwide spread of colistin resistance. “For an infected patient, if the multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial pathogen is resistant to colistin, then there is a big problem,” said senior author James Kirby, MD, Director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at BIDMC.
In their Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy study, Kirby and his colleagues Thea Brennan-Krohn, MD and Alejandro Pironti, PhD screened 19 different antibiotics for synergy with colistin. The team discovered several combinations where synergy was present and infections with resistant pathogens could potentially be treated with the combination therapy.
Of particular interest, colistin demonstrated high rates of synergy with linezolid, fusidic acid, and clindamycin, which are protein synthesis inhibitor antibiotics that individually have no activity against Gram-negative bacteria. “It was remarkable to see two drugs, each of which is inactive on its own against these bacteria, inhibiting them in combination,” notes Brennan-Krohn. “These findings suggest that colistin retains sub-lethal activity against colistin-resistant bacteria, which may enable drugs like linezolid to reach their targets.”
“Faced with highly resistant pathogens, clinicians often currently treat with multiple antibiotics without knowing the benefit the combinations may provide,” said Kirby. “This study now provides some scientific underpinning for these choices and direction for future investigation.” He added that combination therapy may also allow clinicians to use lower effective doses of colistin and other drugs, which would help avoid toxicities associated with the medications as well as slow the development of antibiotic resistance.
This work was funded in part with Federal funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Health and Human Services."

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"Research Points to Potential Shortcoming of Antibiotic Lab Tests"

7/12/2018

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Our inoculum effect manuscript in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy highlighted in BIDMC news release.
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Catalyzing Research Innovation

1/18/2018

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The laboratory has been fortunate to participate in Harvard Catalyst Reactor Program through the "Big Ideas, Small Features” Pilot Grant Award.  A description of the program was recently published last week in Harvard Medical School news titled "Catalyzing Research Innovation."    

A description of the supported work can be found at: "Reactor Program Awards Eight New Pilot Grants: Supports researchers with novel solutions to major clinical challenges."
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Digital Trends Post (AI Microscope)

1/11/2018

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Artificial intelligence used to identify bacteria.
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Press Release on "Technologist Assist"

12/15/2017

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http://www.bidmc.org/News/PRLandingPage/2017/December/Kirby.aspx
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Our antimicrobial susceptibility testing research is highlighted on Harvard Catalyst Spotlight

3/6/2017

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See discussion of our work on Microscopy-Based Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing as part of the Harvard Catalyst Reactor Pilot Program.
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Selected as a SLAS 2017 Innovation Award Finalist

1/16/2017

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I was selected as a SLAS 2017 Innovation Award Finalist and will be speaking at the SLAS Annual Meeting with a presentation titled: "Inkjet Printing Technology for Facilitated At Will Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (FAST) in Under 5 Hours: Addressing the Needs of a So-Called 'Post-Antibiotic Era'.
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Press Release on KP Smith's article in Journal of Clinical Microbiology

7/14/2016

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BIDMC issued a press release on our manuscript on at-will antimicrobial susceptibility testing performed using a digital dispensing method.    "Simple Method Quickly Tests Hard-to-Treat Bacteria’s Susceptibility to Different Antibiotics".  

The original article is now available online at: 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27335151
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  • Home
  • Antimicrobials
    • Legionella pneumophila
    • T4SS-dependent Gram negative pathogens
    • CRE Pathogens
    • Mechanisms of carbapenem resistance >
      • Carbapenemases | KPC | NDM-1
      • Porins
      • Efflux pumps
  • Diagnostics
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Pathogenesis
  • About the PI
  • Personnel
  • Publications
  • Blog
  • Environment
  • Positions
  • Resources
  • Donations
  • Comments
  • Contact Info
  • Internal Lab Resources