Pranita D. Tamma, MD, MHS
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Director of the Pediatric Antibiotic Stewardship Program
The Johns Hopkins Hospital
About my role in the ARLG
My initial introduction to the ARLG was as a recipient of an Early Stage Investigator Seed Grant. Since then, the ARLG has been very generous in providing me with opportunities for further involvement, including being a member of the Gram-negative Committee. In this role, I help establish the research agenda, provide feedback on proposed research studies, and review manuscripts from ARLG-funded research.
About my research
In 2014, I received funding from the ARLG to establish a Gram-negative bloodstream infection database from three hospitals: The University of Maryland Medical Center, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. This database includes information on close to 5,000 unique patients infected with Gram-negative bacteria. The main objective is to answer questions related to the clinical impact of antibiotic breakpoint changes. Antibiotic breakpoints are established based on epidemiological cutoff values, pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic data, mathematical models, animal studies, and available clinical data. Unfortunately, there are often limited clinical data to inform breakpoint changes, so we rely mostly on in vitro and animal studies. By establishing a large database of patient-detailed data we hope to explore the impact established antibiotic breakpoints can have on patient outcomes to determine if breakpoint adjustments may be necessary.
In addition to addressing questions surrounding antibiotic breakpoints, our database our database has enabled us to answer other clinical questions surrounding Gram-negative bloodstream infections such as the:
- optimal duration of therapy
- transitioning from intravenous to oral antibiotics as an effective treatment approach
- role of piperacillin-tazobactam for the treatment of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing bloodstream infections
In addition to conducting comparative effectiveness studies, my research also focuses on improving the diagnosis and treatment of multi-drug resistant Gram-negative infections. The ARLG has helped me partner with experts in bacteriophage therapy to better understand how we can use lytic phages to treat challenging bacterial infections such as those that are highly drug resistant. We are focusing on the use of phages targeting Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We are just getting started on this work and I am very excited to look beyond antibiotic solutions to tackle drug-resistance.
Impact of the ARLG funding to my career
Since my induction into the ARLG, I have had the opportunity to work closely with national leaders in the field and that has led to my involvement in interesting research studies and new funding opportunities. I have been invited to give several national and international talks, to become a voting member of the Clinical Laboratory and Standards Institute, and to become an editor at Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. I am very grateful to the ARLG for all its mentorship and support.