Colombian Microbiologist Camilo Barbosa.
Colombian biologist Camilo Barbosa is looking to replicate the process of evolution because if some evolutionary paths are consistent, then science may one day be able to predict when and how antibiotic resistance will evolve.
Barbosa, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor, USA says that his work is inspired by a thought experiment, called “replaying life’s tape,” proposed by the late Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould.
“If we could replay an evolutionary process a million times, how many times would we see the same outcome?” Barbosa says, “Essentially, I am trying to identify how often bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics through the same paths… and yes there can be multiple paths, multiple ways of being resistant, bacteria are masters of adaptation.”
According to the World Health Organization, antibiotic resistance remains one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development — a growing number of infections are becoming harder to because the antibiotics used to treat them become less effective.
“All of this is important because the number of multidrug resistant microbes is increasing, and the burden in mortality is increasing too,” Barbosa says, “At this rate, the number of people dying because of a resistant pathogen is going to be higher than any other cause; it is already as high as malaria or HIV/AIDS.”
Barbosa says that if evolution is not chaotic and is rather repeatable, following one or some paths somewhat consistently, then science can predict when and how resistance will evolve.
“We can learn whether the processes occurring within a patient can be repeated in the lab, and test ways in which we can stop resistance from evolving,” he says.
An important aspect of the project is how phages, that is, viruses that infect bacteria, have evolved alongside bacteria and could potentially help control them.
“I was captivated by the idea that phages could be used as alternatives to antibiotics, ” Barbosa says, “One of the many reasons why that could be the case is because phages can co-evolve with bacteria in a sort of arms race where bacteria evolve resistance to phages, but phages can adapt to that resistance mechanism too.”
illustration of the Bacteriophage Virus that infects and replicates within a bacterium. 3D … [+]
A Love For The Phages
Barbosa grew up in Bogotá, Colombia and it was towards the end of his undergraduate degree in microbiology at Universidad de los Andes that he found his calling thanks to his first mentor, Dr. Martha Vives.
“In one of her lectures, I learned about bacteria and phages, the natural obligate viral predator of bacteria and I was hooked,” he says, adding that combined with his passion for evolution in bacteria, phages became the main focus of his research.
“I finished my bachelor and masters with Dr. Martha Vives in a beautiful project around co-evolution of phage and bacteria,” he says.
Barbosa would go on to start his PhD in Germany at the International Max-Planck research school (IMPRS) for evolutionary biology in Kiel (& Plön).
“My main objective was to better understand how bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics and the way we use them, and identify evolutionary principles that could be leveraged to our advantage to delay or even stop evolution,” he says. “The objective has been to bring the evolutionary perspective closer to the medical needs at the bedside and identify ways in which I could translate what I found during my PhD into the clinic.”
Barbosa believes that antibiotic resistance is a global problem that will require a global approach and effort to find local solutions.
“The more perspectives are brought into this, the more creative and innovative solutions will emerge,” he says, “I believe the Global South has a vast amount of capable, talented and hard working people… we tend to be resourceful and adventurous, both qualities of which science tends to benefit.”
Ann Arbor, MI, USA – November 8: Lurie Biomedical Engineering Building on November 8, 2020 at the … [+]
Another scientist from the Global South tackling antibiotic resistance is Windi Muiziasari.
An Indonesian bio-technologist turned entrepreneur, Muziasari is using PCR technology to help hospitals, factories and farms to monitor their sewage outflows for strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
