Tackling the Antibiotic Resistance Crisis with Laurence Rahme and Amy Tsurumi
Laurence G. Rahme is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and Microbiology/Immunology at Harvard Medical School. At Massachusetts General Hospital, she is also Director of the Molecular Surgical Laboratory and furthermore, Scientific Staff at Shriners Hospitals for Children. In the industry setting, she is the Scientific Founder of Spero Therapeutics that focuses on therapeutic alternatives to antibiotics.
With over two decades of experience in host-pathogen interactions research, she is recognized internationally among the scientific community for having pioneered the study of the problematic Pseudomonas bacteria in the laboratory setting, and identifying the multiple virulence factor regulator (MvFR), a critical factor that regulates pathogenesis. Following her findings, she developed interventions targeting this key pathway. Her methods are appreciated as viable options to treat antibiotic resistant bacterial infections and to limit further development of antibiotic resistant strains.
Laurence’s work has led to an extensive number of seminal scientific journal article publications and relevant patents. Moreover, she has served on various Advisory and Editorial Boards of many high impact scientific journals, as well as on panels of the National Institutes of Health. She has won numerous prizes and honors, including being elected as an American Academy of Microbiology Fellow. Laurence received her B.Sc and M.Sc from the University of Naples and her Ph.D. from the UC Berkeley.
Amy Tsurumi is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Shriners Hospitals for Children. Her research in the Rahme Lab focuses on host susceptibility and response to bacterial infections using a combination of model systems and human population data. She has published numerous scientific articles and has presented her work at various international conferences. In addition to her role in research, she designs and teaches courses in epigenetics, genetics and epidemiology at Harvard and Beacon Hill Seminars.
Born and raised in Tokyo, she moved to the US to attend Scripps College in Claremont, CA as an international scholarship recipient where she double majored in Biology and French Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, then subsequently moved to Boston to complete her Master’s in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. She has lived in Beacon Hill for the past five years and enjoys every moment of being a part of the vibrant community.