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"In order to avoid regression to the pre-antibiotic era, when now-a-days innocuous bacterial infections were fateful, we must take actions to preclude antimicrobial resistance gene spread. By understanding the reasons that propel the spread we might find novel ways to hinder it", tells Katariina Koskinen.

Traditional microbial laboratory studies consist of simple few species assays and the complicated networks of multi-species communities are often neglected due their complexity. However, in her thesis Koskinen concentrates especially on these complex multi-species communities and how the interactions between the community members reflect to the antimicrobial resistance proliferation.

"In natural state organisms share their habitat with other organisms of different species and their metabolites. In laboratory, these settings are extremely challenging to provide but steps towards more natural assemblies can be taken to obtain more accurate results", Koskinen describes.

In original publications presented in her thesis Koskinen and colleagues for example discovered that addition of protozoa into microbial communities elevated the level of antibiotic resistance in bacteria more than environmental antibiotic pressure.

Infection treatment with bacteriophages

One of the most popular substitutes to weakened antibiotic drugs are bacteriophages, simply phages. These viruses naturally selectively infect bacterial cells and can be utilized in infection treatment.

"Phage therapy has a high potential but often we cannot predict the detailed interactions between the host bacteria and used viruses. For that reason, picking the most effective phage or combination of phages demands laboratory testing prior to treatment itself", Koskinen clarify.

In her thesis Koskinen bounds phage therapy as a part of a larger microbial community. That enables phage therapy design in a community scale context rather than traditional host parasite interaction-based approach.

Experimental work during the thesis has been funded by Emil Aaltonen foundation and Academy of Finland. 

The research is published in JYU Dissertations series, number 413, Jyväskylä, 2021. ISBN 978-951-39-8787-9 (PDF), URN:ISBN:978-951-39-8787-9 ja ISSN 2489-9003.
Link to publication:  

M.Sc. Katariina Koskinen will defend her thesis ‘Interacting Microbes, a Source for Antimicrobial Resistance Propagation’, from the field of cell- and molecular biology, on Friday 27th August 2021 at 12 o’clock. Opponent in the dissertation is Professor Pentti Huovinen from the University of Turku and Professor Varpu Marjomäki from the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ acts as custos. Docent Tarmo Ketola and Docent Matti Jalasvuori have acted as supervisors of the thesis. Dissertation is in Finnish.

The audience can follow the dissertation online.
Link to the online event:

Phone number to which the audience can present possible additional questions at the end of the event (to the custos): +358 40 563 4422