Mia Rondinelli, MSc Candidate DiCenzo Lab Variations in carbapenem resistance associated with the Verona Integron‑encoded Metallo‑β‑lactamase across the order EnterobacteraleS The dissemination of genes encoding antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in populations of pathogenic bacteria is an inconvenient truth of microbiological research. Infections with resistant bacteria are twice as likely to result in serious health conditions and three times more likely to result in death when compared to their non-resistant counterparts, accounting for approximately 700 000 global deaths yearly. The use of antibiotics at sub-therapeutic levels in livestock to boost the cost-efficiency of feed, the increased prevalence of multidrug resistant pathogens in nosocomial environments, and the continued over-prescription and misuse of medically relevant antibiotics are just a few of the factors contributing to the increased prevalence of AMR, meaning that it is crucial that we continue to study how AMR genes operate within their hosts and spread across populations of pathogenic bacteria. In my thesis project, I am investigating the factors that contribute to carbapenem resistance in six multidrug resistant clinical isolates from Kingston General Hospital across the order Enterobacterales. Although these six isolates contain the same carbapenemase gene, vim-1, their minimum inhibitory concentrations of ertapenem (a clinically relevant carbapenem antibiotic) vary more than tenfold across strains. Therefore, my research seeks to address the factors contributing to ertapenem resistance phenotype by identifying the microbial physiology supporting this resistance and broadly investigating the molecular epidemiology of vim-1 in the Kingston region.
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