A topsy-turvy world where pathogen sequencing leads infection
The development of targeted interventions to protect hospital patients from the threat of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections requires evidence on the source(s) from which these organisms are initially acquired. Bacterial whole genome sequencing is transforming our understanding of the relative importance of other patients, the ward environment and the food chain as reservoirs of nosocomial pathogens. In this talk, I will describe how sequencing is being used to redesign hospital infection prevention and control.
Sharon Peacock was previously Professor of Clinical Microbiology in the Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge (2009-2015), and head of bacterial diseases research at the Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programme in Bangkok (2003-2009). Her research group are located at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute where she is an honorary faculty member, and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. Professor Peacock is currently on secondment to the Wellcome Trust, where she works as an expert in residence with the Drug Resistant Infections Priority Programme. She is the founding Chair of the Surveillance and Epidemiology of Drug Resistant Infections Consortium (SEDRIC); a member of the Technical Advisory Group to the UK Department of Health Fleming Fund; and a member of the Steering Group for the UK cross-council antimicrobial resistance initiative.
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