An accomplished and widely published scientist, Dr Bhakta's enthusiasm for this topic engaged a non-scientific audience, helping us understand complex scientific processes and leaving us with a good understanding of the basics of the research he has been involved with to date.
To follow is a summary of what you can expect when you watch and listen to Dr Bhakta's talk:
- An overview of TB, how it works, what it does, how it infects and thrives in host cells, how it can be dormant and then wake up again, during which time it can become more virulent and resistant to antibiotics.
We learn how TB requires a cocktail of 4 drugs every day over a period of 6 months to combat it, that there are side effects and consequences of these drugs.
Dr Bhakta talks about the complex structure of a TB cell in a clear and understandable way, explaining that the cell has a fatty acid layer which means that any standard antibiotic won't get through the cell wall. TB cells are continually evolving, through chemical and biological activity, making things even more difficult in antibiotic development, but this kind of research is helping to address these difficulties. - Focus of research: how Dr Bhakta and his team study from biologists point of view how these germs live in the host cell, the different physiological stages. This is linked with the existing understanding and knowledge of antibiotics, which in turn forms antibiotic development.
- We learn how antibiotics work, how they try to disrupt and shut down the different mechanisms of the bacterial cell. We start to gain an understanding of how the immune system and TB work and that in patients with HIV, TB is a high threat as the highly active antiretroviral treatment for HIV clash with the cocktail of drugs needed to be taken to stop the TB. So more research is needed to address this aspect of treatment. There's a reality check in that, at the moment, no antibiotic that can eliminate dormant TB bacteria.
- Dr Bhakta gives an introduction to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), explaining how it develops 1) intrinsic 2) inherited
We see a visual demonstration of a bacterial cell inside the host cell to show how antibiotics work, adding to our understanding of how problematic this area is. - The importance of the structure of the antibiotic, so that it can stop the function of the enzyme in the bacterial cell is explained as is the thousands of biochemical reactions - communications that are happening, the pathways created, for bacteria to keep going, stay alive and develop inside the host cell.
- We learn about the 5 key mechanisms contributing to antibiotic resistance that are being researched. The idea and exploration of targeting multiple enzymes, of limiting the pump mechanism of the bacterial cell which can pump out the antibiotic.
- We hear about how antimicrobial resistance in TB is being tackled with new drugs with novel mechanism(s) of action and how it will take many years to design and develop new classes of antibiotics for TB. A new antibiotic needs to act on a new molecule, different function of a cell, different mode of action. It's this kind of research that's contributing to figuring out how to do that.
- Plants as a major source of antibiotics, natural sources.
- Dr Bhakta is convincing in his assertion that science has to be collaborative, locally and globally. He describes the work that chemists, structural biologists are doing together to grow TB germs at different levels, nurturing them in some experiments and stressing them to see how they work. This along with using biology and chemistry together to discover molecules that then have novel anti-tubercular properties.
- We learn about the work in the labs using assays to help understand the function and working of enzymes and the SPOT culture growth inhibition methodology developed by Dr Bhakta and his colleagues.
- Other developments that have come from Dr Bhakta's research include a compound library from natural products and synthetic molecules - evaluation of novel chemical entities.
- There have also been interesting developments in connecting the research science to the end products with collaborations looking at how a molecule works in different areas and what happens when you bring all of that knowledge together. A discovery of a connection between painkillers and TB. The results of whole cell screening show that the painkiller carprofen is an effective TB killer! There's more research to be done to see how this can be developed in effectively treating TB.
What I enjoyed in Dr Bhakta's talk is the way that he made complex scientific research understandable and accessible to those of us that don't have an extensive science background. The way that he connects the research and discovery that's happening in the labs and how their research is impacting on real life is really inspiring.
Dr Bhakta was able to summarise the key milestones in his research career to date, which demonstrates that this type of scientific research is very much an ongoing process and that there will always be new things to learn, different approaches to take and discoveries to made that are likely to have a direct impact on our health.
It's great that his research informs teaching on the Bsc Biomedicine module Microbes and Antimicrobials and on Msc Microbiology and MRes module, Medical Bacteriology as Birkbeck students are learning from an active researcher, making their learning more dynamic and current.
Watch, listen and learn from this talk yourself: Thinking beyond the obvious, TB or not TB? Tackling antimicrobial resistance in the superbug.
Learn more about Dr Bhakta's work and his author profile by watching this short screencast which shows an author search in Scopus which shows Dr Bhakta's published research outputs.
