Ama Ranasinghe and Dr Jayesh Dhanani

Ama Ranasinghe

Title: Determining the in vitro potency of tebipenem against third-generation cephalosporin resistant Enterobacterales from bloodstream infections

Bio: Honours student and research technician in Professor David Paterson’s laboratory. Research interests include antimicrobial resistance and broth microdilution susceptibility testing.  

Overview: Bloodstream infections caused by extended-spectrum β-lactamase and/or AmpC producing E. coli and K. pneumoniae are significantly complex to treat due to the prevalence of widespread antimicrobial resistance among these species. Intravenous carbapenems exhibit the greatest stability towards these resistance mechanisms and therefore are regarded as the gold-standard of treatment for such multidrug-resistant infections. However, once clinical stability is achieved, suitable oral step-down therapy is required to prevent the unnecessary prolonged use of last-line intravenous carbapenems. Since there is widespread resistance towards currently available step-down options, tebipenem, a novel carbapenem, may provide an attractive alternative as it combines the exceptional activity of a carbapenem with a convenient oral formulation.

Dr Jayesh Dhanani

Title: Pulmonary disposition of inhaled tobramycin

Bio: Dr. Jayesh Dhanani is an intensive care specialist at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital since 2009. Prior to pursuing a career in intensive care medicine, he qualified and practiced as a Respiratory physician in India. His experience while caring for patients suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis directed his focus toward the concept of pulmonary drug delivery. He was awarded a PhD from the University of Queensland in 2019 under the supervision of Prof Jason Roberts. He is a Clinician Research Fellow with the Metro North Hospital and Health service since 2020. Currently, he is involved in a path breaking research in the field of pulmonary drug delivery local and systemic effects that has wide application across diverse patient groups.

Overview: Ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) is defined as pneumonia that occurs 48-72 hours, or greater, following endotracheal intubation. VAP contributes to almost half of all cases of hospital acquired nosocomial pneumonia causing significant mortality and morbidity. There is also a concern of an increasing emergence of multi-resistant organisms as a cause of VAP. Hence, VAP continues to be a challenge from both a prevention and treatment perspective in critical care. Using an incremental research pathway, we performed a series of studies to describe the pharmacokinetics of inhaled tobramycin as it is microbiologically highly effective against gram negative organisms such as Pseudomonas spp which are the major pathogens associated with VAP.