Lady microbiologist of the week : Dr. Abigail Salyers

 

Lady microbiologist of the week : Episode 4

     Dr. Abigail A. Salyers was born in 1942 whose research focused on bacteria in the intestinal tract contributing to better understanding of antibiotic resistance and mobile genetic elements.

     At the age of 17 he was pregnant. Nevertheless, she enrolled at George Washington University, where she not only graduated with a BA in mathematics but also she graduated with honours and went directly into a PhD program in Physics and completed doctorate in 1969. At 27, she was a mother to a 10-year-old who published papers in nuclear physics as well as an assistant professor. After that she decided to take up a new field of study in microbiology. Salyers would call that "the dark side" of the field that is anaerobic microbiology. In which the microorganisms that live in the dark, anaerobic environment like the human gut.

     When everyone else was busy studying E. coli, she continued with Bacteroides to recognize the diversity of the microbiome and what it could teach us about human health. Her lab discovered the way Bacteroides transferred genetic information about antibiotic resistance and how that genetic information was regulated to spread resistance to surrounding bacteria. Dr. Salyers was one of the first researchers who sounded the alarm about growing antibiotic resistance and the need for stewardship.

     She was able to discover new genetic insights, the threat of antibiotic resistance which promote the need for clinical and environmental microbiologists to collaborate more information.

     Her book is named "Bacterial Pathogenesis: A Molecular Approach," helps to explore the mechanisms by which bacterial pathogens cause infections in humans and animals.

     She won the National Graduate Teacher Award in Microbiology in 2009, Pasteur Award for Research and Teaching with the All-Campus Award for Excellence in Teaching and Golden Apple Award three times for Medical School Teaching at the University of Illinois.

Akanksha Joshi,

Microbiol,

RSML