Early Career Webinar

The global threat from antibiotic resistance was highlighted in 2017 when the World Health Organization (WHO) published its first-ever priority pathogen list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Considered most in need of new treatment options were problematic Gram-negative bacteria (including Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacteriaceae) which contain a unique double-membrane cell envelope that acts as a first-line defence mechanism against many antibiotics.
However, there is a lack of understanding of how bacteria modify their cell surface to resist antibiotics and how these modifications affect interactions with membrane-targeting antibiotics (e.g., the last-line polymyxin antibiotics).

These significant knowledge gaps severely limit the design of much-needed novel antibiotics targeting antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

This free webinar will discuss the mechanism(s) underpinning the rapid and extensive membrane lipid remodelling and its relationship with polymyxin resistance in Gram-negative bacteria.

Dr Meiling Han (Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University (Australia)

Dr Meiling Han is a group leader and an Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA fellow at Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University (Australia). She completed her PhD in antimicrobial systems pharmacology at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Science in 2018. Dr Han's research has been focused on the relationship between antimicrobial resistance and the remodelling of membrane lipids in Gram-negative bacteria.

Over the past 4 years, she has established an independent research programme to characterise the chemical compositions and biological functions of essential bacterial metabolome and lipidome using an integrative metabolomics/lpidomics and biophysical approach. Her research has resulted in productive research outputs as evidenced by 49 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals (e.g., Nat Commun, Nat Microbiol, Adv Sci).

Dr Wenyi Li (La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, La Trobe University, Australia)

Dr Wenyi Li is an NHMRC Investigator (Emerging Leadership Level 1) and Lecturer in Chemistry at the Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, La Trobe University, Melbourne.

Dr Li is also an Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne. His research projects mainly focus on the development of antimicrobials to combat nosocomial infections by using his chemical biology expertise and skillset.

By fostering an active collaborative research network, Dr Li has obtained several outstanding successful grants, including: 1 CIA NHMRC Investigator Emerging Leadership Level 1 grant and 1 CI NHMRC Ideas Grant.