That's So Metal: Dr. Jessica Sheldon Targets Acinetobacter Baumannii

About this episode

Dr. Jessica Sheldon discusses her research on Acinetobacter baumannii and its implications for hospital infections.

Jessica Sheldon (PhD) is on a mission to starve out Acinetobacter baumannii — one of the world's most virulent hospital-borne pathogens. Notorious for its speedy evolution and multi-drug resistance, the hospital-borne bacteria lingers on dry surfaces and infects critically-ill patients, leading to sepsis, pneumonia and high mortality rates. In this episode, Sheldon delves into the real-life events that drove her to investigate histamine, and its role in bacterial survival and immune response. In 2022, Sheldon joined the University of Saskatchewan's College of Medicine as an assistant professor of Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology -- something she now laughs about after an ill-fated high school placement in an immunology laboratory. "Cytokine cascades, pathways, the signaling just got way over my head real fast," said Sheldon. "I didn't really know what I was doing." Sheldon enrolled at Lakehead University, drawn to the tiny pathogens with outsized roles in movies like Outbreak. She estimates she read the book T he Hot Zone 20 times. Her persistence paid off. "One of my second year microbiology teachers said, 'you know, I think you're kind of good at this. Maybe you should…

People in this episode

Guest: Jessica Sheldon

Topics covered

• Acinetobacter baumannii
• multi-drug resistance
• bacterial survival
• immune response
• biochemistry
• microbiology

Keywords

• Acinetobacter baumannii
• multi-drug resistance
• hospital pathogens
• biochemistry
• microbiology
• immune response
• histamine

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Saskatchewan, College of Medicine, Lakehead University

Products: The Hot Zone

Places: Canada

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