Centre for Clinical Research

Antimicrobial optimisation

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About

Infections in the healthcare setting are common and cause too many people to die. Severe infections commonly occur in patients with critical illness, burns, transplant, cystic fibrosis and immunosuppression. Infections in these patients are more difficult to treat leading to more multi-drug resistant (‘superbug’) infections which are associated with increased mortality and poorer health outcomes.

The Antimicrobial Optimisation Group is addressing these issues by improving antimicrobial dosing in these challenging special patient populations, using our world leading collaborative experience in the areas of laboratory-based infection and experimental models, clinical pharmacokinetics, pharmacometrics and clinical trials to define robust and evidence-based dosing regimens of our most commonly used antibiotics that will maximise antimicrobial effectiveness including reducing the emergence of resistance.

This group runs the Centre of Research Excellence for Optimising and personalising antimicrobial dosing to reduce resistance (RESPOND).

Contact

+61 7 3346 5045

cre.respond@uq.edu.au

 

Visit the CRE RESPOND website

Bioanalysis Laboratory

PhD students

Completed PhD students

  • Dr Puteri Zamri
  • Dr Gene Chai
  • Dr Vesa Cheng
  • Dr Yarmarly Guerra Valero
  • Dr Aaron Heffernan
  • Dr Kamrul Islam
  • Dr Sazlyna Mohd Sazlly Lim
  • Dr Eko Setiawan
  • Dr Gloria Wong

Honorary Academics

Critically ill patients often have varying physiological needs compared to the average patient and often require different dosage of antibiotics and other drugs, particularly if they are on life sustaining organ support such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) or continuous renal replacement therapies (CRRT). There is also controversy over whether a single dose of a drug or other substance given over a short period of time (called bolus dosing), or continuous infusion of β-lactams is more effective in delivering the right amount of antibiotic in critically ill patients. Professor Lipman has pioneered a large body of work which demonstrates that patients in intensive care units (ICU) do not receive optimal levels of antibiotics to kill the disease or infection-causing pathogens. This in turn leads to poorer health outcomes for patients as well as resistance to antibiotic treatment. Antibiotic resistant infections commonly occur in long stay, debilitated patients and increase the risk of death; result in longer ICU and hospital stay, physical weakness and long-term dysfunction. This contributes to patients being stuck in the ICU or hospital, worsening the shortage of acute-care hospital beds and increasing surgery waiting time.

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to antimicrobial optimisation research, please contact med.advancement@uq.edu.au. Thank you for your support.