Health's urgent challenges: Are we ready?

Urinary tract infections (UTI) are extremely common with broad antibiotic resistance. While 1 in 2 women will have an infection, only 1 in 50 men will experience UTI. Incidence is not constant over a lifetime, and the timing of changes in incidence suggests that changing hormone levels impact host-pathogen interactions. We study sex as a biological variable in the response to UTI. We found that female and male organisms respond differently to UTI in experimental models and immunity can be changed by altering sex hormone levels, such as testosterone. Our goals are to understand how sex impacts immunity to UTI so that we can develop efficacious, sex-specific therapies.

Bacteria have arguably been the major cause of mortality throughout human history. The discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century revolutionized medicine by providing effective drugs to combat bacterial infections. However, the recent rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria poses a growing threat expected to produce 10 million deaths annually by 2050. This talk aims to explore the origins of antimicrobial resistance and the factors contributing to its escalation with an emphasis on the characteristics of bacteria that contribute to their extraordinary adaptability.