Residence Australia Role Scientist | Name Ruth Hall Fields Microbiology | |
Born 6 August 1945
Sydney, New South Wales ( 1945-08-06 ) Alma mater University of Sydney, University of Edinburgh Known for Discovery of integrons as mechanism of transfer of antimicrobial resistance among bacteria Notable awards McFarlane Burnet Medal, 2012 | ||
Ruth Milne Hall (born 1945) AM, FAAS, FAAM is an Australian microbiologist whose research on mobile genetic elements in bacteria identified the mechanism for spread of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
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Career
Hall attended Hornsby Girls High School, graduated from the University of Sydney with a BSc(hons) (1966) and MSc (1968), and then took up a scholarship for PhD on bacterial genetics in the MRC Microbial Genetics Unit at the University of Edinburgh (awarded 1971). She then joined the research staff at the CSIRO Molecular and Cell Biology Unit., where she worked on integrons and antibiotic resistance genes. . After her research unit at CSIRO was closed (2003) she returned to the University of Sydney, where her research on the molecular genetics and genomics of bacterial antibiotic resistance has identified further mechanisms for gene transfer between gram negative bacteria. She has been recognized with the highest awards in Australia for microbiology, received the McFarlane Burnet Medal in 2012, the Order of Australia Medal in 2014 and was inducted into the National Health and Medical Research Council Hall of Fame in 2014.
Research
Hall has investigated the role of mobile genetic elements in the development of multiple antibiotic resistance and in bacterial evolution using different Gram negative pathogens including Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter baumanni . Hall’s work has characterized a variety of mobile elements, including plasmids, genomic islands, transposons, gene cassettes and integrons. Gene cassettes are mobile genetic units each carrying only one gene which can be readily transferred into and between larger, stable genetic backbones called integrons that are responsible for moving the cassettes. The integron is also responsible for expression of the genes in cassettes. This exchange of genes between different bacteria enables rapid emergence of resistance under selection pressure of antibiotics.
Her recent work has identified large antibiotic resistance gene clusters, including genomic resistance islands in Salmonella, in Klebsiella pneumonia and in Acinetobacter baumanni and examines their evolution. Multiple antibiotic resistance in Acinetobacter baumanni is now being tracked using whole genome analysis. Spread of resistance between individuals is an increased risk among hospitalized and immunosuppressed patients with Hall’s work identifying the role of commensal bacteria, including E.coli in the human colon in spread of genes. Resistance genes can also reach the human food chain through subtherapeutic antibiotic use as growth promotants in animal production, with Hall contributing to JETACAR (Joint Expert Advisory Committee on Antibiotic Resistance), which, in 2000, developed Australian Government policy on antibiotic use in agriculture. The risks of the rise of “superbugs” from the gene exchange processes described by Hall are recognized internationally as a threat to human health (WHO report on antibiotic resistance, May 2014).