Grant: Genomics and Personalized Health -Large-Scale Applied Genomics Res Projects

The global rise in the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria is a problem so serious that it threatens all modern medicine. We have already reached the point where half of the common bacteria that cause infections are resistant to our front-line drugs. Moreover, new superbugs have emerged that cannot be cured with any drug. Once these multiple-drug resistant organisms take hold in our healthcare setting, many of the benefits of modern medicine, including hip replacement surgery, chemotherapy, and organ transplant, will become too risky due to the chances of acquiring a deadly infection. Finding an immediate solution to this global health crisis is our moral imperative to ensure that future generations will benefit from modern medical practices. One of the primary reasons for the increasing levels of antibiotic resistance is the one-size-fits-all approach we take to treating infections, which encourages the over use of these drugs. The one-size-fits-all approach also causes unnecessary sickness and deaths. Different strains of bacteria can be dramatically different in the risks they pose to our health. However, we do not consider these risks when treating infections because of technological limitations. To solve this problem, we have assembled an international team of infectious disease experts, microbiologists, database experts, and analytical chemistry experts to develop a new approach to treating infections. Our solution is to 1) identify every significant biochemical trait that is found in the most dangerous bacteria, 2) create an automated analytical system and database for predicting the potential risks posed by each individual infection, and 3) implement a new Precisions Infection Management (PIM) strategy that will allow clinicians to match each patient to the exact level of antibiotic therapy necessary to cure infections without unnecessarily selecting for antibiotic resistant bacteria. PIM will reduce overall antibiotic use and may preserve the lifespan of our critical front-line drugs. In addition, it will help ensure people suffering from dangerous bacterial infections (e.g. “flesh-eating” strains) get aggressive therapy faster. Likewise, PIM will ensure that people infected with non-dangerous strains receive milder therapies and minimize the risks of medical complications (e.g. kidney failure). PIM allows these significant health improvements without increasing costs to our healthcare system: we predict that PIM will actually save money because of the reduced time people will need to spend in the hospital, and more importantly, it will save lives.