K-State Cancer Research Professor Receives $1.5M to Study Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
Wednesday May 19, 2010
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH GRANTS K-STATE RESEARCHER NEARLY $1.5 MILLION TO STUDY ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANT BACTERIA
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are becoming a growing problem around the world, and are a particular worry in hospital-acquired infections.
“In U.S. hospitals today there are reported to be upward of 2.5 million infections annually for people who came to a hospital to be treated for one thing, but before they are sent home they’ve acquired a secondary infection,” said Lynn Hancock, assistant professor in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University.
Hancock was awarded nearly $1.5 million for the next five years from the National Institutes of Health, Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to investigate the antibiotic resistance of enterococci, a type of bacteria commonly found in hospitals.