Infectious Disease

News about infectious disease from Harvard Medical School Department of Ophthalmology

Study Led by Michael Gilmore, PhD, Identifies Pathway for how Enterococcus Faecalis Bacteria Causes Antibiotic-Resistant Infection

April 18, 2019

A new study led by a research team from Harvard Medical School and Mass. Eye and Ear, describes how bacteria adapted to the modern hospital environment and repeatedly cause antibiotic-resistant bloodstream infections. This study examined one of the first sustained hospital outbreaks of a multidrug-resistant bacterium, Enterococcus faecalis, which occurred from the early through the mid-1980s, causing over 60 outbreak strains.... Read more about Study Led by Michael Gilmore, PhD, Identifies Pathway for how Enterococcus Faecalis Bacteria Causes Antibiotic-Resistant Infection

Researchers develop new class of antibiotics to fight leading superbugs

March 29, 2018

In a significant advance against drug-resistant superbugs, investigators supported by the Harvard-wide Program on Antibiotic Resistance have identified a new class of synthetic antibiotics that have been shown to be effective against Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus. The newly discovered antibiotics could one day help treat deadly infections caused by these superbugs.

The research group, which included Michael Gilmore, PhD, Sir William Osler Professor of...

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Michael Gilmore, PhD, chairs $20 million antibiotic-resistance challenge

Michael Gilmore, PhD, chairs $20 million antibiotic-resistance challenge

April 13, 2017

In March 2017, Michael Gilmore, PhD, Director of the Harvard Infectious Disease Institute, chaired a blue ribbon panel that reviewed the most promising applications for the Antimicrobial Resistance Diagnostic Challenge--a $20 million federal prize competition to develop innovative, rapid point-of-care laboratory diagnostic tests to combat the development, and...

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Mass. Eye and Ear team discovers, successfully treats new variant of antibiotic-resistant bacterium

September 15, 2016

Boston, Mass. —  Researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear have discovered a new mutation in a highly antibiotic-resistant strain of E. coli that resists clearance by the body’s own immune system by inhibiting white blood cells that ordinarily kill and remove bacteria. In a paper published online today in JAMA Ophthalmology, the researchers describe the case that led them to...

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Scientists Discover New Properties of Microbes That Cause Common Eye Infection

Scientists Discover New Properties of Microbes That Cause Common Eye Infection

November 12, 2014

Findings described in Nature Communications

BOSTON, MASS. – Scientists from Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School Department of Ophthalmology have used the power of new genomic technology to discover that microbes that commonly infect the eye have special, previously unknown properties. These properties are predicted to allow the bacterium ― Streptococcus pneumonia ― to specifically stick to the surface of the eye, grow, and cause damage and inflammation. Researchers are now using this information to develop new ways to treat...

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