As an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering and the principal investigator of the Chatterjee Research Lab, Dr. Chatterjee is making strides toward reducing antibiotic resistance and ensuring better health for all humans. Since Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, the human fight against pathogens and the diseases they cause has improved dramatically. Current research will tell us though, that the microbes are beginning to retaliate in the form of "super-bugs", antibiotic-resistant microbes that do not respond to antibiotic treatment. Dr. Anushree Chatterjee of the University of Colorado, Boulder is at the front lines of this fight, not only creating technology that can synthesize and provide insight into the pathogen's genome, but also assisting in the development of new "smart antibiotics" designed to combat resistance and evolution.

Dr. Chatterjee's work straddles both clinical and corporate settings and can be divided into three categories: an understanding side in which research on microbes is executed in order to yield more information about how bugs evolve, a diagnostic side where a specific pathogen can be identified, and a therapeutic side, where "smart therapy" is applied to antibiotic development so that humans can gain an edge in this arms race.

• • Dr. Chatterjee and her team have discovered that there are changes in the genome of microbes that enable that pathogen to develop antibiotic resistance. There are specific sequences of genetic data that provide microbes with characteristics that combat and negate the effects of antibiotics. Once that gene is developed, it is often shared with other cells of the same type, creating an antibiotic-resistant strain of microbe. Dr. Chatterjee continues to research this area while trying to discover more resistance-causing sequences.

  • Traditional biopsy methods involve subjecting a sample to enzymes, which then react with the sample to yield information about potential infections; in doing so it also destroys the sample. Dr. Chatterjee has developed a new and innovative approach to detect infectious "bugs" using nanotechnology. Using Dr. Chatterjee's method, a blood/urine sample (typically) is subjected to nanobytes programmed to execute a nano-electronic sequencing method. This technology is able to sequence a single molecule of DNA and detect even trace levels of infection in a subject, which is far earlier than traditional methods. Furthermore, with this method no additional specialty agents, such as enzymes, are required beyond the tissue sample and the nanotechnology. Diagnoses are non-invasive and non-destructive, meaning after analysis the tissue sample can be permanently archived.

  • Dr. Chatterjee's research has revealed that changes in the genome of microbes has allowed bugs to develop antibiotic resistance. Working with a drug-resistant strain of Escherichia coli and Salmonella Enterica, Dr. Chatterjee has developed RNA-based therapeutic molecules that target beta-lactamases, enzymes that provide resistant characteristics to antibiotics. These chemically synthesized  molecules are able to directly target the genetic sequence known to cause resistance, and research confirms that microbes subjected to this regimen have been re-sensitized to antibiotic treatment. Next-generation antibiotics will have to exhibit these tendencies and be able to adapt with pathogens.

A patient infected with a common disease is typically prescribed antibiotics and instructed to consume their prescription and wait until the infection is neutralized. With antibiotic-resistant microbes, the very treatment that is intended to cure the problem will only exacerbate the severity of the infection. It is therefore crucial to have accurate diagnosis of pathogens as early as possible, and to treat them accordingly. Modern medicine has extended the average human life immensely, but the populating of "super-bugs" carries the threat of reversing that trend. Not only must we detect these bugs early on, but current treatments and antibiotics must be redesigned in order to prevent the growth of resistance.