Biology Professor Wilkinson's Research aids Fight Against Resistant Staph Bacteria

School of Biological Sciences Distinguished Professor Brian Wilkinson is advancing the development of new drugs to treat staph infections thanks to a $215,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Wilkinson's research aims to expand upon the development of new antibiotics to treat methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-intermediate staphylococcus aureus (VISA) bacteria.

 "Everyone is worried about untreatable infections," said Wilkinson. "The outlook is grim if new drugs aren't developed. Academic labs can only go so far in the drug discovery process and then you have to get 'big pharma' involved." Wilkinson also stated that pharmaceutical research work in universities has picked up over the last 10 years, due in part to heightened awareness and increase in funding at NIH.

Wilkinson has had a long-term interest in studying organisms resistant to antibiotics and has already made significant contributions to the field. A 2008 article he published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy along with fellow University Distinguished Professor of Biology Radheshyam Jayaswal has been cited in 26 other articles.

For this grant, Wilkinson will employ a relatively new (less than 10 years old) technique called transcriptional profiling, meaning he will study the change in gene expression in the bacteria in response to new compounds. It is thought that these compounds, developed by Harvard Medical School Professor Suzanne Walker, inhibit the formation of one component of the bacteria cell wall.

The three-year grant is a NIH Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA or R15). AREA grants support small research projects in the biomedical and behavioral sciences conducted by faculty and students in health professional schools, and other academic components that have not been major recipients of NIH research grant funds. The goals of the AREA program are to support meritorious research, to strengthen the research environment of the institution, and to expose students to research. Wilkinson is working with a post-doctoral candidate and a graduate student.