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This version of NSU News has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of NSU News, visit news.nova.edu.
This version of SharkBytes has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of SharkBytes, visit sharkbytes.nova.edu.
Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Assistant Professor Co-Authors Top Article on Effectiveness of Antibiotics
Robert Smith, Ph.D., assistant professor at the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences, co-authored an article on the effectiveness of antibiotics, which was published in the Molecular Systems Biology journal on Oct. 9. Within a week of publication, the article reached the top three on the journal’s online list of most-downloaded articles. The article was also the Editors’ Choice for Microbiology in the Oct. 12 issue of Science magazine.
About the Article
Title: “The Inoculum Effect and Band-Pass Bacterial Response to Periodic Antibiotic Treatment”
Smith’s research involves uncovering a mechanism by which bacteria tolerate antibiotic treatment, known as the “inoculum effect.” In other words, bacteria will tolerate antibiotics if their density is sufficient; alternately, they will be susceptible to the antibiotic. While the inoculum effect has been observed for nearly every antibiotic known, little is known about how this phenomenon occurs.
Through a combination of experimentation and computational mathematics, Smith and his colleagues developed a mechanism by which the inoculum effect occurs for antibiotics that target the ribosome. Furthermore, the collaborative research shows how the inoculum effect has a drastic impact on the overall efficacy of antibiotics when they are applied periodically, such as when we take pills over a period of time.
According to the article’s findings, the study “reveals that, for ribosome-targeting antibiotics, the inoculum effect is due to bistable inhibition of bacterial growth, which reduces the antibiotic efficacy at intermediate treatment frequencies.”
Read More
—View Smith’s research article online, via Molecular Systems Biology.
—Science magazine names Smith’s article the Editors’ Choice for Microbiology.
Smith’s research collaborators include co-first author Cheemeng Tan, co-authors Jaydeep K. Srimani, Katherine A. Riccione, Sameer Prasada, Meta Kuehn, and senior author Lingchong You—from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.