Catherine Wakeman
Texas Tech University, TX·Microbiology & Immunology
Antibiotics are losing ground. Bacteria are evolving resistance faster than new drugs are being developed, and the problem is worst in chronic infections, such as long-lasting wound and lung infections, that persist for months or years despite treatment.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Ecology & Evolution
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
antibiotic resistance
antimicrobial resistance
chronic infection
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Identify vulnerability tradeoffs, weaknesses that appear when antibiotic-resistant bacteria reshape their physiology to survive drug exposure, and test whether targeting them clears infection in a mouse chronic wound model.
- Build multi-species wound pathogen community models and use them to measure how bacterial interactions shift antibiotic effectiveness, with a method the team proposes could be adapted for clinical labs.
- Design combination antibiotic treatments that exploit polymicrobial antagonism, where mixed communities become more drug-sensitive, to overcome synergism that protects bacteria, and validate them in a mouse wound infection model.
More about the research
Each failed attempt to clear these infections gives bacteria another chance to evolve new ways around the drugs. This project asks how features of the chronic infection environment could instead be turned against the bacteria, so that the antibiotics already in use keep working longer.
Why it matters
People with chronic wound and lung infections can carry bacteria for months, years or even decades, and prolonged, failing antibiotic treatment helps resistance spread among dangerous pathogens. Treatment strategies tailored to the chronic infection environment, such as drug combinations that exploit bacterial weak points or interactions between species, could make existing approved antibiotics work for longer. The proposed lab method for measuring how mixed communities change drug effectiveness may also help clinical labs guide treatment choices.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Daniel J Wozniak
Ohio State University, OH·Microbiology & Immunology
Define how Psl, a secreted sugar polymer of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, suppresses Staphylococcus aureus growth and interacts with S. aureus protein A (SpA), using several complementary strategies.
Zhaomin Yang
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, VA·Microbiology & Immunology
Improve the potency and selectivity of a novel small-molecule inhibitor of the bacterial type IV pilus through structure–activity relationship studies that systematically vary its chemical structure.
Amy Mathers
University of Virginia, VA·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine which transposons, DNA segments that jump between locations, dominate movement of a carbapenemase resistance gene inside bacterial cells, by combining whole-genome sequencing of patient and environmental isolates with new mathematical analyses.
The school
Texas Tech University: 9 labs on PI Pages, $257M a year on research, 415 research doctorates a year.
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