School of Physics Thesis Dissertation Defense

Presenter:        Adam Krueger

Title:                   Interferometric Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing

Date:                  Monday, June 10, 2024

Time:                  12:30 p.m.

Location:          Howey N201/202

Virtual Link:     https://gatech.zoom.us/j/92572172426

Committee members: 

Dr. Peter Yunker, School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology (advisor)

Dr. JC Gumbart, School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology 

Dr. Flavio Fenton, School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology 

Dr. Marvin Whiteley, School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. David Weiss, Antibiotic Resistance Center, Emory University

Abstract:

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the greatest threats to modern medicine. Globally, it is responsible for the loss of millions of lives and billions of dollars every year, and this problem has continued to worsen. Added selective pressure from increased antibiotic use in hospitals, in agriculture, and at home are generally blamed for the rapidly increasing rate of evolution. Combine this with the lack of novel, non-derivative antibiotics for more than three decades, and we can see the result. We must find sustainable ways to address the complex problem that antimicrobial resistance presents. One way to do this is to find ways to use our current, and any new, antibiotics more effectively. This can be done through better antibiotic susceptibility testing.

In this talk, I will propose a novel method of testing for antibiotic susceptibility. First, I will show that in the ‘simple’ regime of homogeneous, genetic resistance or susceptibility, we can use topographies of bacterial colonies measured by white light interferometry combined with machine learning to determine the susceptibility phenotype of that pathogen in half of the time as currently reported by standard clinical methods. Then, I will discuss an underappreciated, though important susceptibility phenotype called monoclonal heteroresistance and how we can test for it using bacterial topographies in a faster, less labor intense way than current lab standards.