A Double-Edged Sword: Balancing Superbugs & Health

We are improving a new method to track microbes and look closely into their very private lives in our gut! This will hopefully let us get a super-detailed look at how they evolve and interact when faced with antibiotics. By doing this, we are hoping to understand at least part of the mystery of the plasmid paradox and figure out how microbes adapt—plus, what all those antibiotics mean for our own gut health.

Acinetobacter baumannii is a near-perfect pathogen, with an incredible ability to survive in the cleanest hospitals and nearly every part of the human body. Yet even within such a prevalent species, a group known as International clone II has emerged as the most widespread and resilient form of A. baumannii. This talk will delve into the history and population structure of A. baumannii, with particular focus on the ICII group and the underlying factors which make it such a potent threat to human health.