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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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"The rapid rise of antimicrobial resistance is a growing threat globally. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa) is an opportunistic pathogen with numerous intrinsic mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance. Chronic infection of Pa is associated with increased morbidity in individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF), a genetic disease that results in persistent lung infection and gradual decline in lung function. Patients are thought to be initially infected by a single strain of Pa that then diversifies extensively in the CF lung over time. Pa population heterogeneity may explain why CF patients chronically infected do not respond well to antibiotic treatment. My aim is to understand the dynamics and evolution of population heterogeneity and antimicrobial resistance in clinical Pa. Here, I show that heterogeneity in antimicrobial susceptibility phenotypes of Pa isolates sourced from CF infections is of clinical importance, and I investigate the fitness costs associated with increased resistance to antibiotics. The data suggests that improved clinical diagnostic methods are needed to test CF sputum samples for antimicrobial susceptibility, as current methods may recommend inappropriate treatments."
