Infectious Diseases Focus Group

The Infectious Diseases Research Focus Group develops therapeutic treatments and outreach programs to address infectious diseases including HIV, hepatitis, COVID-19, and malaria. The Group also confronts particular challenges among South Florida populations, such as vulnerable seniors who are likelier to acquire resistance to common antimicrobial medicines, via innovative therapies and expansion of current outreach efforts. Researchers work to help local communities understand biological and social mechanisms driving antimicrobial resistance and other public health challenges.

Tiny Earth

Tiny Earth is an innovative program that introduces students to scientific methods while addressing a global health threat - the diminishing supply of effective antibiotics. Since its inception as Small World Initiative (SWI), Tiny Earth has grown rapidly to include more than 275 participating undergraduate institutions and high schools across fifteen countries. At Florida Atlantic, 192 Life Science Lab (RI:BSC 1005L) students are engaged in Tiny Earth per semester and have discovered hundreds of antibiotic-producing soil bacteria. The bacteria with the best antibiotic-production profiles are shared with the General Microbiology Lab (MCB 3020) students (~100 students per semester) to further characterize these unknown bacteria. We have established a research team partnering with Florida Atlantic chemists with the goal of isolating and characterizing novel antibiotic compounds. Visit Tiny Earth

Members of the Infectious Diseases Research Focus Group include:

Max Caputi, Ph.D., Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine (HIV)
Andrew Oleinikov, Ph.D., Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine (malaria)
Cynthia Archibald, Ph.D., Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing (HIV)
Katherine Chadwell, Ph.D., Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing (hepatitis)
Predrag Cudic, Ph.D., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science (antimicrobial resistance)
Lyndon West, Ph.D., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science (antimicrobial agents)
Nwadiuto Esiobu, Ph.D., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science (microbial biotechnology)
Phil Huang, Ph.D., College of Education (endotoxin effects on physiology)
Amy Wright, Ph.D., Florida Atlantic Harbor Branch Oceanography Institute (antimicrobial agents)
Michael Frain, Ph.D., CRC, College of Education (Department of Counselor Education)
Necibe Tuncer, Ph.D., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science (Department of Mathematical Sciences)