Evolution of antibiotic resistance in the presence of antibiotic gradients
Evolution of antibiotic resistance in the presence of antibiotic gradients
- Event time: 1:00pm
- Event date: 27th February 2012
- Speaker: Dr Bartlomiej Waclaw (School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
- Location: Room 2511, James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB) James Clerk Maxwell Building Peter Guthrie Tait Road Edinburgh EH9 3FD GB
Event details
When bacteria are exposed to an antibiotic, they spontaneously evolve resistance to it after some time. This is obviously an important problem in medicine and as such it has been addressed experimentally and theoretically in thousands of publications. However, surprisingly little is known about what actually determines the time it takes to evolve the resistance. In this talk I will focus on the role of antibiotic gradients such as these which occur in tissues during therapy of bacterial infections. I will discuss how this problem can be studied by means of analytical calculations, computer simulations, and simple experiments. I will show that gradients may either speed up or slow down the evolution of resistance, depending on the mutational pathway leading to resistance.
About Condensed Matter lunchtime seminars
This is a weekly series of informal talks given primarily by members of the institute of condensed matter and complex systems, but is also open to members of other groups and external visitors. The aim of the series is to promote discussion and learning of various topics at a level suitable to the broad background of the group. Everyone is welcome to attend..