[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Wright_Gerry-05.jpg” caption=”Gerry Wright. Photo credit: Graham Jansz”]In the movie Jurassic Park, a character responds to the observation that a supposedly all female population of dinosaurs is somehow breeding with the comment, 'life finds a way'.

McMaster University's Gerry Wright delivers this same statement when discussing how bacteria grow resistant to the antibiotic medicine used to combat them. Ever since Sir Alexander Fleming first discovered penicillin in 1928 the battle between man and microbe has raged – and these organisms wreak much more havoc and harm than Jurassic Park's dinosaurs ever did.

Bacteria cause countless human diseases – diseases that have historically killed millions of people. Fortunately, the development of accessible antibiotic drugs around the time of World War Two has spared many people from illnesses that would have likely been fatal 100 years ago. However, even today in developing nations bacterial diseases such as tuberculosis, typhoid, cholera, and leprosy claim innumerable lives.

Bacteria are extremely adaptive and versatile organisms that continue to “find a way.” Wright, the chair of the Department of Biochemistry & Biomedical Sciences and the Canada Research Chair in Molecular Studies of Antibiotics, says, “Microorganisms live in every conceivable environment you can think of – hot springs, ocean trenches, miles below the surface of the earth.” They can handle anything that the earth throws at them, and they have proven that they can develop resistance to the antibiotics with which we attempt to defend ourselves.

Bacterial resistance is a natural result of using antibiotics. When an antibiotic is used, the only bacteria that survive are ones that have some sort of immunity. These bacteria then multiply creating more bacteria like themselves who are able to resist antibiotics.

Wright says, “The minute you introduce an antibiotic, the clock begins to tick. As you increase antibiotic use, you increase the proportionate population of drug resistant organisms in the environment. If you use it, you lose it. In fact, we're now at the stage with some infectious organisms that we've exhausted our ability to go to the shelf and just get the next antibiotic.”

According to Wright, this problem is magnified in hospitals because “there's a lot of antibiotic use. You'll find people on not only one, but maybe two, three or four [antibiotics] at a time. As a result there are lots of opportunities for resistance.”

Consequently, the places that house the sickest people often become occupied territory of the infamous 'super-bugs'.

Wright emphasizes, “We have to be vigilant and careful with the use of antibiotics. That means using them only for infections caused by susceptible microorganisms ' don't take penicillin for a common cold (which is caused by a virus, not a bacteria).” He also notes, “Resistance is inevitable and we need to stay in the trenches, otherwise we won't be able to catch up.” It is in these metaphorical trenches that Wright and his lab group labour.

A major focus of Wright's lab group is to understand how bacteria make themselves resistant to antibiotics. Generally, there are three major methods employed by bacteria to evade antibiotic drugs: modification or destruction of the antibiotic, pumping the antibiotic out of the bacteria, and physically changing the bacteria to cover its 'Achilles' heel'. Wright's group is working towards understanding the very specific details of the bacteria's adaptations with the intention of, as he says, “Identifying molecules that could block resistance and therefore make the antibiotic useful again.”

Wright says, “I am also deeply interested in where resistance comes from in the first place – how does it evolve?” Understanding the typical origins of resistance can allow Wright to predict what new resistance mechanisms might look like – a preemptive strike against the microbes. In The Art of War, Sun Tzu emphasized the importance of knowing your enemy – good advice for battles and for biochemistry.

Another research focus involves examining living creatures that naturally produce antibiotics. Many of the antibiotics that we use are made by organisms such as fungi or even bacteria themselves – this process is called biosynthesis. Wright says his group is working towards “engineering these [antibiotic producing organisms] to make new antibiotics that will overcome resistance.”

Wright's group is also aiming to find new targets for antibiotics. Although some antibiotics are now losing their effectiveness against certain bacteria, Wright hopes that they can still be used to kill other things such as fungi, which can also infect humans and cause diseases.

The research of the Wright group is bolstered by the diversity and skill of the staff and by the cutting-edge tools they work with. Wright observes, “There are chemists in the lab who make molecules, there are biologists who work on microorganisms, there are protein chemists who work on the enzymes, and everybody does molecular biology. We really leverage a number of different fields.” The efforts of the group are also aided by funding from agencies such as the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

Wright also uses McMaster's new High Throughput Screening (HTS) Laboratory. The HTS lab is a remarkable tool that Wright describes as “a group of automated workstations – robots – that allow us to sample and run thousands of assays a day.” This machine spares countless hours of human work and greatly speeds Wright's research.

Wright says, “It's a gem. It doesn't exist anywhere else in Canada. There are only a few other labs in the world that have it.”

Wright says, “We hope to understand a really important phenomena, antibiotic resistance, to the point of being able to predict and develop countermeasures against it.” In the process he observes that his group is also “training great people. It's really important that the next generation of scientists is being trained right here at McMaster.”

Bacteria are dangerous and extremely resilient adversaries; they continue to 'find a way'. Consequently, there will likely never be an antibiotic that is resistance proof. Fortunately, Gerry Wright and the innovative scientists in his lab continue to find their own ways to strike back. They are striving to ensure that the anti-microbial arsenal that saves millions of lives remains stocked and potent for when we need it most.

(The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council SPARK (Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge) program was launched in 1999 at 10 universities across Canada. Through SPARK, students with an aptitude for communications are recruited, trained and paid to write stories based on the NSERC supported research at participating universities.)