The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on multidrug-resistant pathogens:
How do the hygiene and distance rules introduced due to the pandemic influence the transmission of multidrug-resistant pathogens in hospitals? Professor Dr Marco Galardini and Professor Dr Susanne Häußler are investigating this question in a new three-year project. The DFG is supporting them with funding of 300,000 euros.
“With this project we want to investigate which bacterial strains circulate in hospitals and with what frequency they occur there,” explains Professor Galardini. To answer these questions, the research team will combine genetic and epidemiological data obtained through sequencing and digital tracking. “The goal is to be able to detect resistance as early as possible in order to prevent it from spreading,” says Professor Häußler. The team is referring to bacterial strains of the species Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, which are among the most important bacterial pathogens of hospital infections.
Professor Galardini holds a RESIST professorship at the MHH and he collaborates within the RESIST projects of the Research Area C, which revolves around bacteria. He heads the TWINCORE working group “Systems Biology of Microbial Communities”. Professor Häußler heads the TWINCORE working group “Molecular Bacteriology” and is the lead researcher of the RESIST projects C1 and C2.