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CDC awards over $9 million to combat antibiotic resistance

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Deborah Dean

Deborah Dean, MD, from UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, is one of 25 researchers who received more than $9 million from the CDC as part of the Antibiotic Resistance Solutions Initiative, according to a press release. The award will support Dean’s research in developing and evaluating rapid, point-of-care assays to detect drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

"We hope to develop rapid, inexpensive assays that will sensitively and specifically detect antibiotic resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae at the point of care (POC),” Dean told Infectious Disease News. “This is particularly important because of the alarming global increase in the rate of antibiotic resistance that has occurred for this sexually transmitted pathogen over the past few years.”

The CDC’s Antibiotic Resistance Solutions Initiative, which supports research on outbreak detection, prevention strategies and improved antibiotic use, has previously awarded more than $24 million to investigators to combat antimicrobial resistance, according to the release.

By incorporating a complex analysis of over 2,000 N. gonorrhoeae genomes with known antibiotic resistance and sensitivity phenotypes, the researchers hope to identify specific regions for assay design, according to Dean.

Currently, Dean has received two NIH grants to develop rapid POC diagnostic tests for N. gonorrhea and Chlamydia trachomatis.

“This research will also contribute a greater understanding of antibiotic resistance development in N. gonorrhoeae for use by the larger scientific community,” Dean said. “If we are able to detect N. gonorrhoeae antimicrobial resistance at the POC, we can appropriately target treatment that we know will be effective. Only then will we be able to start to not only decrease the rates of gonorrheal infections among individuals at risk, but curb rampant worldwide transmission." – by Savannah Demko

Disclosure: Dean has received grant support from federal agencies to develop diagnostic tests for sexually transmitted infections.