Prof Jian Li from Monash University of Australia will visit Purdue University on June 9th Friday. You are welcome to his seminar which will be held in Pharmacy building (RHPH). Prof Jian Li is an international leading researcher in the pharmacology of polymyxins, an important class of antibiotics which are known as the last-line antibiotics for Gram-negative superbugs. Please see below and the attached flyer on the details of his short Bio and his seminar.
 
Reviving Polymyxins: A Systems Approach
 
Professor Jian Li
 
Biography
Professor Jian Li (PhD 2002) is Head of the Antimicrobial Systems Pharmacology Laboratory at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University. He is a Thomson Reuters 2015 and 2016 Highly Cited Researcher in Pharmacology & Toxicology. He has an internationally recognised track record in the pharmacology of polymyxins and the discovery of novel, safer polymyxins. The majority of modern polymyxin pharmacology data were reported by his group. He has 233 publications (including 179 on polymyxins) with 9,076 citations and an h-index of 48. He receives regular invitations to chair symposia and present lectures at internationally leading conferences in antimicrobial chemotherapy. He is an Editor of the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents and an Associate Editor of BMC Microbiology. He is a reviewer for 114 international journals and grant/fellowship applications for a number of international funding bodies. Professor Li has received over $41.9M research grants since 2006 from NIH, Australian government, pharmaceutical companies and other grant bodies. He has received numerous awards, including Australian Leadership Award (2013), Australian National Health and Medical Research Council’s Ten of the Best Research Projects (2014) and Australian Academy of Science Jacques Miller Medal (2017).
 
Abstract
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified antimicrobial resistance as one of the three greatest threats to human health. No novel classes of antibiotics will be available in the near future for Gram-negative ‘superbugs’, notably Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii. ‘Old’ polymyxins are increasingly used as the last-line therapy against life-threatening infections caused by these Gram-negative pathogens. As polymyxins were abandoned in the 1970s due to reports on nephrotoxicity and neurotoxicity, there was very little information on their pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics until the last decade. This presentation will review the modern pharmacology of polymyxins (including pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and clinical use); systems biology of polymyxin antibacterial activity, resistance, toxicity and synergistic combinations; and the discovery of new-generation polymyxins using a novel structure-activity-nephrotoxicity relationship model.