Investigations into antibiotic prescriptions awarded the highest overall mark
Congratulations to Molly Horne who has achieved the highest overall mark for the Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) at Clayton or Malaysia. She received a prize of $1000 for her research that aimed to identify possible abnormalities within the microbiome of individuals who had been receiving extremely long courses of antibiotics.
Antibiotics are occasionally prescribed for extended or indefinite courses to patients with chronic infections that are presumed to be incurable. The evidence regarding this type of antibiotic prescribing, especially regarding the potential adverse effects on an individual’s gastrointestinal microbiome, is scarce.
Using shotgun metagenomic techniques Ms Horne in collaboration with a team of scientists and clinicians at the Hudson Institute and Monash Health, identified unusual microbiome composition in half of their participants and high levels of antimicrobial resistance genes in a quarter. Further analysis is required to determine if these abnormalities are a direct consequence of long-term antibiotic use and if there is a potential for the high levels of anti-microbial resistance genes observed in our cohort to transmit to other individuals’ microbiomes.
“Completing a BMedSci (Hons) has been the highlight of medical school so far. I have really valued the opportunity to work on this project, sometimes independently and often with the support of experienced clinicians and scientists,” Ms Horne said.
This project was a collaboration between clinicians from the Monash Infectious Diseases Research Group in the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (A/Prof Ian Woolley and Dr Jillian Lau) and scientists from Forster’s Lab at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research.
About Monash University
Monash University is Australia’s largest university with more than 80,000 students. In the 60 years since its foundation, it has developed a reputation for world-leading high-impact research, quality teaching, and inspiring innovation.
With four campuses in Australia and a presence in Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia and Italy, it is one of the most internationalised Australian universities.
As a leading international medical research university with the largest medical faculty in Australia and integration with leading Australian teaching hospitals, we consistently rank in the top 50 universities worldwide for clinical, pre-clinical and health sciences.
For more news, visit Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences or Monash University.
MEDIA ENQUIRIES