Thursday, November 5th 2009

By unknown

Melanie Ferrier

Research by Dr. Gerald Wright, now Director of the Michael DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, has led to a number of discoveries that are milestones in the clinical realm of infectious disease prevention. Since his arrival at McMaster in 1993, his research has focused on the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics.

Wright, who studied Biology and Chemistry at the University of Waterloo and received his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry, has a rich intellectual background in antibiotic resistance. After his PhD, he went on to complete two years of post-doctoral research at the Harvard Medical School, working on drug resistance. “I just love to discover new things. It’s just an amazingly exciting job to be in,” explained Wright.

When Wright arrived at McMaster, his initial research focused on the molecular details of antibiotic resistance. Whereas any regular microbiologist would identify a bacterium as resistant to antibiotics and leave it at that, Wright went one step further in search of the specific molecular details, which would explain how resistant genes work. According to Wright, this was groundbreaking work. Through a chemical-biology approach, Wright discovered that, “the chemistry used by micro-organisms to evade antibiotics is very much the same kind of chemistry that we use in our cells.”

This discovery led to a new realm of research, focused on answering the question of where resistance is derived from. Led on by the belief that the environment may be a reservoir for resistance genes, Wright began to study the bacteria collected from dirt samples. His research was prompted by his realization that, “the organism that makes dirt smell like dirt is super drug resistant. We tested a panel of about twenty antibiotics and – on average – the organisms were resistant to even or eight different antibiotics.” The significance of this discovery is, “the genes that you find [in dirt], that are associated with resistance, are the same kinds of genes that we find in the organisms that are drug resistant and that cause disease.” In other words, his research suggests that there are over one-novillion (10³⁰) bacteria on the planet and, though most do not cause disease, many are drug resistant.

“There have been all sorts of efforts over the years to try and make some antibiotic that is going to be the one that gets rid of everything, the ultimate drug, but there isn’t a chance that that will ever happen. There are just too many micro-organisms out there.” The truth of this has caused many drug companies to stop their research, but Wright tends to see the discovery in a positive light. It will allow scientists to focus their research. Potential antibiotics can be screened against the resistant, environmental organisms to determine their worth. If an antibiotic tests unfavorably, it can either be rejected or “securitized” through the use of a diagnostic. In this way, the spread of resistance can be inhibited.

Though his research focuses on the microscopic, the importance of Wright’s discoveries is anything but. Most of the antibiotics that we have in use today were discovered in the ‘40s and ‘50s, after Alexander Fleming made the influential discovery that fungus could kill bacteria. Since then, research has petered out, with most scientists turning to other lines of inquiry. Unfortunately, resistance hasn’t petered out along with the research. Drugs continue to face bacteria resistance, and Wright is focused on finding solutions. Besides the clinical importance of finding solutions to antibacterial resistance, Wright is proud to be able to bring quality, internationally competitive research to McMaster.

“The more acclaim that research brings to this place,” states Wright, “the greater the value of a McMaster degree.” He is also excited about the training experience that research provides to McMaster students: “I have had more than fifty undergraduates come through over the years, as well as summer students, graduate students and thesis students. They’ve all gone on to bigger and better things.”

Tags: bacteria, dirt, drug-resistance, Gerald Wright