Evolutionary drivers of antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations from critically ill patients (ID Epi Seminar Series)

Presented by Craig MacLean, Professor of Evolution and Microbiology at the University of Oxford, Department of Zoology. Register for the event here.

Professor Craig MacLean has a longstanding interest in understanding how ecological and genetic processes interact to drive adaptation in microbial populations. His doctoral research at McGill University (2000-2004) investigated the causes of metabolic adaptive radiation in Pseudomonas fluorescens using experimental evolution. His postdoctoral work at Imperial College London (2005-2007) investigated metabolic cooperation and competition in yeasts. Prof. MacLean moved to Oxford as a lecturer in the Department of Zoology in 2007 and was able to establish his own research group when he was awarded a University Research Fellowship from the Royal Society in 2009. Early research in the MacLean lab focused on studying the evolutionary drivers of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria using a combination of experimental evolution, genomics, and mathematical modelling. More recently, they have shifted the emphasis of their work to studying the drivers of resistance in clinical settings.

Recommended Readings

• Wheatley et al. (2021). Rapid evolution and host immunity drive the rise and fall of carbapenem resistance during an acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection.
• Wheatley et al. (2022). Assessing the contribution of gut-to-lung translocation to bacterial colonization and antibiotic resistance in an ICU patient.
• Wheatley et al. (2021). Polyclonal pathogen populations accelerate the evolution of antibiotic resistance in patients.