Dr. Heer Mehta: How Bacteria Become Resistant to Antibiotics

Dr. Heer Mehta starts by going over several of the ways that bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. Dr. Mehta explains the connection between specific antibiotics and specific drugs, and how she uses this information to know what to look for when studying the outcomes of experimental evolution studies. She explains how her group can isolate individual mutations that arise as a pathogen becomes resistant, and determine the difference in the protein structure caused by the mutation. We then discuss specifics of how Dr. Mehta and her group have studied the mechanisms for resistance used by individual pathogens, including a potential biosecurity threat. This discussion includes an example of a pathogen evolving resistance to two antibiotics in a single experimental evolution experiment. Finally, we discuss the potential uses for this type of research to translate to clinical usefulness.