Bartlomiej Waclaw: The physics of drug resistance
- Date: Nov 22, 2017
- Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Bartlomiej Waclaw from the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
- Please find more information on the speaker here: https://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/people/bartlomiej-waclaw
- Location: MPI Plön
- Room: Lecture hall
- Host: Arne Traulsen
Abstract
Resistance
to drugs is now recognized as one of the most important medical and
societal problems. Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics in a
matter of hours, making many antibiotics used to treat human and animal
infections increasingly ineffective. Similarly, cancer cells often
develop resistance to chemo- and targeted therapy that eventually leads
to cancer recurrence. A better understanding of these processes is
necessary if we want to improve the therapy outcome and make the
existing and newly discovered drugs useful for as long as possible.
In
this talk I will first briefly recapitulate my research trajectory
through the physics of drug resistance. I will show some interesting
parallels between the evolution of resistance in populations of bacteria
and cancerous tumours. I will explain how physical processes such as
mechanical interactions between cells and heterogeneities in the
distribution of the drug affect the rate with which resistant cells
spread. I will also show how little is still known about molecular
mechanisms of drug action and drug resistance, and how this can be
improved by combining experiments and mathematical modelling.
Lastly,
I will discuss some intriguing possibilities for future research: how
experimental and theoretical models could be used to optimize
antimicrobial and anticancer treatment, and how physics and chemistry
could help to limit the growth and evolution of resistance in microbial
biofilms.