The National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, invites you to Mette Theilgaard Christiansen’s PhD defence on methods for studying MRSA in pigs. The defence takes place on Friday, 25 April 2014, at 1pm.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) may cause serious infections with prolonged diseases and increased mortality. Thus, it is important to keep the number of MRSA infections at a low level. Traditionally, MRSA infections were hospital-associated, however, MRSA has spread to the rest of the community in recent decades. The spread of livestock-associated MRSA (LA-MRSA) has caused great concern in the past decade as some types can spread from animals and cause infections in humans. The specific sequence type 398 (ST398) has proven to be particularly successful in colonisation of pigs, from where it transmits to humans and can cause infection. This has led to important questions about the origin of this MRSA type and its potential for causing epidemics in humans.
Although LA-MRSA ST398 has been the focus of several monitoring studies, several central questions still remain unanswered, which makes it difficult to control the spread of LA-MRSA. The porcine reservoir has turned out to be an environmental factor for development and spread of ST398, however, we still don’t know which specific genetic factors facilitate zoonotic transmission (transfer of disease from animals to humans).
In her PhD study, Mette Theilgaard Christiansen has exploited the latest sequencing technologies to develop a new high-throughput approach for identifying genes in the ST398 family important for the survival of LA-MRSA in pigs.
See the invitation to Mette Theilgaard Christiansen PhD defence of the thesis: Characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Sequence Type 398.
Time
Friday, 25 April 2014, 1pm
Place
National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark
Building 101 A, meeting room S01
2800 Kgs. Lyngby