MRC Career award

MRC Career award

The Resistance Movement

Antibiotic treatment is the mainstay of modern curative medicine, yet is increasingly complicated by the emergence of antibiotic resistance, most recently highlighted in the outbreak of extensively drug resistant M. tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in South Africa. As antimicrobial resistance increases, so the options for treating a variety of hospital and community acquired bacterial infections are limited, recovery and discharge of patients delayed, new drugs prescribed at increased cost, and the burden on the health care services rises.

An understanding of the processes involved in the development of antibiotic resistance is therefore critical for clinical practice and health care policy, since interventions to limit the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria can significantly reduce the economic burden of disease on the health care system. Dr Segal’s work has contributed to the elucidation of resistance mechanisms in clinical pathogens with unique drug susceptibility profiles.

After completing postdoctoral training (1999 - 2000) at the Laboratoire de Recherche Moleculaire sur les Antibiotiques, Paris Universite VI, Paris, France, Dr Segal returned to the Division of Medical Microbiology, University of Cape Town. She is currently employed by the NHLS as a Senior Medical Scientist and is investigating the epidemiology and genetic basis of antibiotic resistance mechanisms in clinically significant pathogens including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.