UNDERSTANDING THE MICROBIOLOGIC DYNAMICS OF CARBAPENEMASE-PRODUCING ORGANISMS IN HOSPITAL WASTEWATER PREMISE PLUMBING

There has been an increasing recognition that wastewater interfaces such as sink traps in the hospital environment act as reservoirs for the most urgent threats of antibiotic resistant Gammaproteobacteria. The most rapidly evolving resistance mechanisms are driven by genes contained on mobile genetic elements, however it is not always clear where genetic exchange occurs in Gammaproteobacteria and under what conditions. It is increasingly recognized that hospital wastewater systems may be ideal ecologic niches for accelerated resistance gene exchange to occur, however making sense of the many genes, horizontal gene transfer mechanisms, species, and environmental pressures can be difficult.Study Goals:1) impact of KPCO colonized patients on environmental reservoirs,2) tracking dynamics of microbiome and KPCO in defined traps over time under differing conditions including an ex situ controlled sink lab,3) analysis of interventions on KPCO presence