Nathalie Tufenkji
Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University

The overuse of antibiotics fuels the emergence and spread of drug-resistant bacteria, which has become a global public health crisis. Indeed, the World Health Organization identified antimicrobial resistance as a severe and rapidly growing threat to global health that could undermine decades of progress in combating infectious diseases and preventing healthcare-related infections. Thus, there is a strong motivation to develop alternative approaches for infection prevention and treatment that do not promote the development of resistance. Our laboratory has done extensive work examining the mechanisms by which selected natural extracts such as cranberry may impair bacterial functions important for infection (e.g., motility, adhesion, production of virulence factors, biofilm formation). We also showed that a phenolic extract from maple syrup can make disease-causing bacteria more susceptible to common antibiotics. By acting in synergy with antibiotics, these phenolic extracts may expand the spectrum of existing antimicrobials, prevent the emergence of resistant strains, and minimize potential cytotoxicity due to high antibiotic doses. This talk will describe some of the underlying mechanisms of natural extracts in restricting bacterial virulence and their potential implementation as alternative approaches to prevent or treat bacterial infections.

Nathalie Tufenkji is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at McGill University where she holds the Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Biocolloids and Surfaces. She completed the B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering at McGill in 1999 and went on to Yale University, where she earned the M.Sc. (2001) and Ph.D. (2005) degrees in Chemical and Environmental Engineering. Tufenkji leads a research group working in the area of (bio)colloid-surface interactions with applications in protection of water resources, engineering of biosensors and antimicrobial materials, and development of safe nanotechnology. She serves as Associate Director of the Brace Center for Water Resources Management at McGill and on the editorial boards of Environmental Science and Technology, Water Research, Colloids and Surfaces B, Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, and Frontiers in Chemical Engineering.