Marilyn Roberts

"Dr. Roberts' research interests include identification of vancomycin resistant enterococci [VRE] and methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] in humans, animals and the environment and the relationship among these three in a variety of settings [One Health], the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance and their distribution in various microbiomes and how resistance spreads through bacterial populations and ultimately, how these genes affect therapy. The laboratory has an ongoing project to isolate and characterize MRSA from primates, personnel and the environment from the Washington National Primate Research Center. Dr. Roberts is also working with people from the Indonesian primate center. Future work will look for MRSA in primate populations outside the USA, both in Primate centers and wild populations. The laboratory is also interested in antibiotic resistance in oral and urogenital bacteria in general. Another focus is on the oral pathogen Streptococcus mutants and how treatments affect the organism's cariogenic potential, as well as, levels in health and disease within the USA and in other countries." - from globalhealth.uw.edu