Michael S. Gilmore, PhD, Sir William Osler Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and Chief Scientific Officer at Mass Eye and Ear, recently received a five-year, $11,409,360 Program Project (P01) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease to extend funding for the Harvard-wide Program on Antibiotic Resistance.... Read more about Michael S. Gilmore, PhD, Receives NIH P01 Grant for Antibiotic Resistance Program

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

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...

Michael Gilmore, PhD, Sir William Osler Professor of Ophthalmology, gave two lectures in December. On December 5, he presented the Annual Neal Groman Lecture at the University of Washington, where he spoke on the origins of leading multidrug resistant hospital pathogens, the enterococci. The lecture memorialized the work and career of Professor Groman, who was among the first to study the ability of viruses to...

Survival of mass extinctions helps to explain near indestructible properties of hospital "superbugs" 

Boston, Mass. — Leading hospital “superbugs,” known as the enterococci, arose from an ancestor that dates back 450...

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...

Faculty Recognition

Dean Eliott, MD, Evangelos Gragoudas, MD, and Lucia Sobrin, MD, MPH, have been named members of the Ocular Surgery News "Retina 150" list. This is a select...

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...