Antibiotics and the host-pathogen interaction

We investigated how antibiotics affect the host-pathogen interface using in vitro cell culture models. We have identified several bacteriostatic antibiotics that inhibit the ability of macrophages to kill E. coli. We are currently trying to study how this disruption occurs and if it is relevant to other immune cell-pathogen pairs. We hope to use this information about in vivo host responses to guide the development of small molecules or novel antibiotics that can be used to enhance and optimize the host response.