Dr. Michael Gilmore and Veronica Koh.
Michael Gilmore, Ph.D., a resident of Beacon Hill, was recently awarded a $50,000 Research Sabbatical Award from Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB).
This award will enable Dr. Gilmore to spend time in world-leading basic research laboratories to acquire new skills and insights into structural biology and biofilm engineering in order to inform the design of new inhibitors of drug-resistant bacteria.
A full-time scientist, Dr. Gilmore is the Sir William Osler professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and director of the HMS Department of Ophthalmology Infectious Disease Institute. Dr. Gilmore is the founder and principal investigator of the Harvard-wide Program on Antibiotic Resistance and of the academic/industry consortium Boston-Area Antibiotic Resistance Network (BAARN). His research focuses on the evolution and development of multi-drug resistant strains of enterococci, streptococci and staphylococci, and the development of new therapeutic approaches. Currently, Dr. Gilmore is developing new ways to prevent and treat the most problematic multi-drug resistant infections.
Dr. Gilmore also serves on numerous advisory boards and committees for public (NIH, FDA, VA, NSF, EU) and private organizations, mainly focused on drug discovery, antibiotic resistance and bacterial pathogenesis.
“Dr. Gilmore’s focus on finding new ways to prevent and treat multi-drug-resistant infections is a critical field of study with broad implications,” said Joan W. Miller, M.D., F.A.R.V.O,Chief of Ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Massachusetts General Hospital, and Chair of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School.
“We are grateful for RPB’s generous support, which will help Dr. Gilmore advance these important investigations and draw in more people to tackle the infectious disease dilemma together.”