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Pharmacodynamic Function

blevin@emory.edu

Emory University
Dept. of Biology
1510 Clifton Road
Atlanta, GA 30322

Office: 404-727-2826
Lab: 404-727-2956
Fax: 404-727-2880

Bruce R. Levin

Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology

Our research includes mathematical and computer simulation modeling and in vitro and laboratory animal experiments on the population and evolutionary biology of bacteria and their viruses and accessory genetic elements. In addition to investigations addressing precious academic ecological and evolutionary questions, our research also includes the application of population dynamic and evolutionary theory and experiments to health-related problems. Among the latter are investigations of the epidemiology of pathogenic bacteria, antimicrobial chemotherapy and the evolution of resistance, the pharmacodynamics and pharamacokinetics of antibiotics and the within-host population and evolutionary dynamics of bacterial infections and their treatment with antibiotics.

The following is a list the projects on which we currently (December 2007) working and the names of the primary investigator(s) involved in these studies. Unless otherwise noted, at this time BRL’s role in these endeavors is more that of a producer, advisor, prodder, kibitzer, modeler, programmer, occasional technician, editor and general busybody rather than a day-to-day collaborator. For more information about these projects, write to the first investigator listed for that project.

1. Sex (transformation - mediated recombination) and assisted-suicide in continuous culture populations of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Omar Cornejo (PhD student), Danny Rozen (former Postdoc, now a Lecturer at Manchester University, GB), Robert M. May (University of Oxford), Bruce R. Levin
2. Computer simulation and retrospective (serotype and multi-locus sequence) studies of the population genetics and molecular epidemiology of Streptococcus pneumoniae Omar Cornejo (PhD student)
3. The population and evolutionary dynamics of Vibrio cholerae in experimental communities with bacteriophage, alge and copepods - Yan Wei (PhD. Student)
4. The population dynamics of abscess formation and the immune response to Staphylococcus aureus wound infections in laboratory mice – Elisa Margolis (MD/PhD student)
5. A theoretical and experimental study of the effects of density and physiological state of Staphylococcus aureus on the in vitro antibiotic pharmacodynamics its implications for treatment. Klas Udekwu (Postdoc) and Pierre Ankomah (MD/PhD student), Nick Parrish (Emory Undergrad Emeritus, MD/PhD Student, University of Alabama, Birmingham) and Bruce R. Levin.
6. A theoretical study of the contribution of the immune response to the population dynamics of antibiotic treatment of bacterial infections and evolution of antibiotic resistance – Andreas Handel (Postdoc, Rustom Antia’s group), Elisa Margolis (MD/PhD student).
7. The within-host population and evolutionary dynamics of antibiotic treatment of Staphylococcus aureus wound infections - Klas Udekwu (Postdoc), Elisa Margolis (MD/PhD student)
8. Persistence, resurrection and the pharmacodynamics of daptomycin treatment of Staphylococcus aureus – Nick Parrish (Emory Undergrad Emeritus, MD/PhD Student, University of Alabama, Birmingham.) and Bruce R. Levin in collaboration with Maria Isabel Morisani and Fernando Baquero ( Ramon Cajal Hospital, Madrid)
9. The population dynamics of Bacillus subtilis and the conditions for the evolution and maintenance of competence formation and genetic transformation. Pål Johnsen, David Dubnau (The Public Health Research Institute, New Jersey Medical School) and Bruce R. Levin
10. A theoretical study of the epidemiology of community-acquired pneumococcus colonization and infection: antibiotic treatment and antibiotic resistance - Bruce R. Levin in collaboration with Keith Klugman (Emory University School of Public Health).

Some recent publications from our lab: For an almost complete list of our articles, click on Publications

• Lemonnier, M; B.R. Levin, T. Romeo, K. Garner, M-R Baquero, J. Mercante, E. Lemichez F. Baquero, J. Blázquez 2008 Evolution of contact-dependent inhibition in non-growing populations of E. coli Proc. Royal Soc. B. 275:3-10[PDF] [Supplemental On Line Material]

• Levin, B.R. 2007 Plagues and people meet the microbe hunters. Book Review, Nature Medicine 13: 239.

• Margolis, E. and B. R. Levin 2007 The evolution of bacteria-host interactions: virulence and the immune over-response. Chapter 1, pp 3-12 “ Introduction to the Evolutionary Biology of Bacterial and Fungal Pathogens ” J F.M. Baquero-A. C. Nombela, G.H. Cassel and J.A Gutteriez and Editors, ASM Press.[PDF]

• Margolis, E. and B.R. Levin 2007 Within–Host Evolution for the Invasiveness of Commensal Bacteria: an experimental study of bacteremias resulting from Haemophilus influenzae nasal carriage, Journal of Infectious Disease 175: 1069-1075.[PDF]

• Rozen, D. E. L.E. McGee, B.R. Levin and K. P. Klugman 2007 .The fitness costs of fluoroquinolone resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 51:412-416.[PDF]

• Meltz-Steinberg, K. and B.R. Levin 2007 Grazing protozoa and the evolution of the Escherichia coli O157:H7 Shigatoxin-encoding prophage. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B Series (Biology) 274: 1921 - 1929.[PDF]

• Lipsitch, M., T. Cohen, M. Murray, B.R. Levin 2007 Antiviral resistance and the control of pandemic influenza. PLoS Med 41: e15.[PDF]

• Levin, B.R. and D.E. Rozen 2006 Non-inherited antibiotic resistance. Nature Reviews Microbiology 4: 556 - 562.[PDF]

• Jensen, M. S. Faruque, J.J. Mekalanos B. R. Levin 2006, Modeling the role of bacteriophage in the control of cholera outbreaks Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. US103:4652-4657 [PDF]

• Klugman, K.P. and B.R. Levin 2006 One Enzyme inactivates two antibiotics. Nature Medicine 12(1): 19 - 20.[PDF]
   

Current research support (grants):

• Population genetics and evolution of antibiotic resistance. National Institutes of Health (RO1 AI4062)

• The within-host population dynamics of antibiotic treatment, Pfizer Inc.