Model of antibiotic action on bacterial population growth
Model of antibiotic action on bacterial population growth
- Event time: 1:00pm
- Event date: 25th January 2016
- Speaker: Professor Martin Evans (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
In this talk I will describe a simple model for the growth of a bacterial population under the challenge of ribosome-targetting antibiotics. The model is statistical physics-like in that it makes a coarse-grained description of the growth process, reduced to three variables within the bacterial cell - the antibiotic concentration, the concentration of ribosomes bound to antibiotics and the concentration of unbound ribosomes. Furthermore, there is biological input from empirically established physiological constraints which relate the three variables. Remarkably the model can explain several experimental observations concerning antibiotic action and bacterial growth rate. In particular the growth-dependent bacterial susceptibility is controlled by a single, 'universal' parameter and the extreme behaviours correspond to the phenomenological classification into bactericidal and bacteriostatic antibiotics.
Reference:
Growth-dependent bacterial susceptibility to ribosome-targeting antibiotics Philip Greulich, Matthew Scott, Martin R. Evans, Rosalind J. Allen Molecular Systems Biology 11:796 (2015)
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..