The Struggle against Superbugs: Combating Antimicrobial Resistance in the Clinic and the Community

Speakers

Sara E. Cosgrove, MD, MS

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
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Sara E. Cosgrove is an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She also directs the antibiotic management program and is an associate hospital epidemiologist at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her research investigates the epidemiology and outcomes of antimicrobial resistance in the hospital setting, develops tools and programs to promote the rational use of antibiotics and prevent hospital-acquired infections. She works to develop tools and programs to encourage the safe and rational use of antimicrobial drugs.

Cosgrove received her undergraduate degree from Columbia College, her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and her master of science degree in epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health. She completed her postgraduate training in internal medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and underwent subsequent training in infectious disease at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Kitty Corbett, PhD

Simon Fraser University
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Kitty Corbett is a medical anthropologist and director of undergraduate programs at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. Her research includes studying patterns of community-based antibiotic use in North America and beyond, as well as developing effective campaigns of public outreach around this subject. In Colorado, she directed the media design and implementation of a health communication campaign that reduced inappropriate prescriptions of antibiotics for acute respiratory infections. Corbett has also worked with the Centers for Disease Control on a national campaign to reduce antibiotic use.

Corbett received her PhD in medical anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1986. From 1987 to 1991 she was a research scientist in the division of research of Kaiser Permanente Medical Care in California, and from there moved to the University of Colorado at Denver, where she was a professor in the Health and Behavioral Sciences program and in the Anthropology Department. She joined Simon Fraser University in 2005.

Martin J. Blaser, MD

New York University School of Medicine
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Martin Blaser is the Frederick H. King Professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, as well as professor of microbiology at that school. He is former president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a member of the organization's executive committee. He also serves on the board of directors of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and is the founder of the Virtual Museum of Bacteria. He is widely known for his research into Helicobacter pylori and other organisms in the human digestive tract, the co-evolution of humans and microbes, and the potential role of microbes in immune system dysfunction and cancer.

Blaser received his MD from NYU in 1973, followed by a fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Colorado Medical Center. From 1979 to 1981 he was an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

He received the Squibb award from the Infectious Diseases Society of America in 1992.

Kathleen McGowan

Kathleen McGowan is a freelance magazine writer specializing in science and medicine.