Public Seminar on Evolution in Action by Dr Sam Brown

Evolution in action: antibiotic resistance and the search for 'evolution proof' drugs

The growing crisis of antibiotic resistance is a striking example of evolution in action. Only 60 years after the introduction of penicillin, we now face multiple-drug resistant strains of common bacteria that are resistant to nearly all currently available antibiotics. In this talk I will briefly discuss the history of antiobiotic resistance, before turning to the pressing challenge of finding new mechanisms of bacterial control. I will discuss a range of new strategies, that all feature modifications to bacterial social life (encouraging 'good behaviour' and/or blocking bacterial communication). Some of these strategies hold real promise both in terms of their immediate therapeutic impact and also their potential to keep working in the face of inevitable bacterial evolution.

Venue: 12.00 Wednesday 18th April, Joly Lecture Theatre, Hamilton Building, Trinity College Dublin. map.
For more information, please contact Dr Andrew Jackson, School of Natural Sciences, a.jackson@tcd.ie, Tel. + 353 (0)1 896 2728

Dr Sam Brown, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, will deliver a public seminar as part of Trinity Week and hosted by the School of Natural Sciences under the theme of Ecological and Evolutionary Systems. Dr Brown is an Evolutionary Biologist whose work centres on two themes: the evolution of cooperation and the evolution of virulence. These two themes combine strongly when applied to microbial pathogens, as microbes must often cooperate, communicate and coordinate in order to successfully exploit their hosts. His recent research has revealed the vital role that mobile genetic elements (molecular parasites of bacteria, such as plasmids and temperate phages) play in driving the evolution of microbial cooperative behaviours and consequent virulence. His research into the social lives of microbes underpins the growing field of devising novel therapeutic strategies based on evolutionary theory to control antibiotic resistance.

Representative publications

Rankin DJ, McGinty SE, Nogueira T, Touchon M, Taddei F, Rocha EPC & Brown SP (2011) Bacterial cooperation controlled by mobile elements: kin selection and infectivity are part of the same process. Heredity 107, 279-281. abstract,  pdf.

Kummerli R & Brown SP. 2010. Molecular and regulatory properties of a public good shape the evolution of cooperation. P.N.A.S. 107, 18921-18926. abstract,  pdf.

Brown SP, West SA, Diggle SP, Griffin AS. 2009. Social evolution in microorganisms and a trojan horse approach to medical intervention strategies. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. B. 364, 3157-68. abstract

Hamilton W.D. & Brown SP 2001. Autumn tree colours as a handicap signal. Proc. R. Soc. B 268:1489-1493. abstract