SCAN:Coagulase-negative staphylococci: a tool box for Staphylococcus aureus

ITQB SCAN Seminar

Title: Coagulase-negative staphylococci: a tool box for Staphylococcus aureus

Speaker: Maria Miragaia Ryder

From: Auxiliary Researcher at Laboratory of Molecular Genetics

Abstract:

 Coagulase-negative staphylococci: a tool box for Staphylococcus aureus

Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) are one of the most relevant pathogens in the hospital setting and are usually associated to prosthetic devices and chronic infections. Besides their role as pathogens, CoNS have been also recognized as reservoirs of antimicrobial and virulence genes for other more pathogenic species such as Staphylococcus aureus. In spite of its clinical relevance the epidemiology of the different coagulase-negative staphylococci species started to be studied in the last few years only. My work has been mainly focused on the molecular epidemiology of S epidermidis, S. hominis and S. haemolyticus. During our studies we developed new typing strategies that allowed us to demonstrate key epidemiological features of each of this species. These findings can have an important impact on the design of future infection control measures. Moreover, we showed that these CoNS species are not only reservoirs of the mobile staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) that carries the determinant of resistance to beta-lactams, but also active players in the assembly of this element.