Gerry Wright

Gerard D. Wright, PhD, FRSC, is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, and Canada Research Chair in Antibiotic Biochemistry at McMaster University[2] who studies chemical compounds that can combat antibiotic resistance in bacteria.[3][4][5] He is also an Associate member of the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Pathology and Molecular Medicine. Wright was Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences from 2001 to 2007. He was the Director of McMaster's Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research from 2007 to 2022. He is currently the executive director of Canada's Global Nexus for Pandemics and Biological Threats.[6] He is also founding director of the McMaster Antimicrobial Research Centre, and co-founder of the McMaster High Throughput Screening Facility.

For other people named Gerry Wright, see Gerry Wright (disambiguation).
Gerry Wright
Gerard D. Wright
NationalityCanadian
EducationUniversity of Waterloo (BSc 1986, PhD 1990)
Known forAntibiotic research[1]
Scientific career
FieldsBiochemistry
InstitutionsMcMaster University
ThesisInvestigation of the lanosterol 14[alpha]-demethylase (P-45014DM) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (1990)

Wright obtained his BSc in Biochemistry and his PhD in chemistry from the University of Waterloo. He did his post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School before joining McMaster University in 1993.

Wright is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the American Academy of Microbiology. He currently serves as an associate editor of ACS Infectious Diseases, and he is a member of the editorial boards of Chemistry and Biology, The Journal of Antibiotics, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, and Antimicrobial Therapeutics Reviews.

Wright coined the term antibiotic resistome, which is used to describe the collection of all the antibiotic resistant genes and their precursors in both pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria.[7]

In 2014, Wright was the senior author on a study in Nature which described the discovery that the previously known Aspergillomarasmine A was a new antibiotic.[1][8][9]

References
  1. Crowe, Kelly (25 June 2014). "Antibiotic-resistant bacteria disarmed with fungus compound". CBC News. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  2. "Gerry's Bio". Thewrightlab.com. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  3. Waters, Hannah (25 April 2011). "Drugs boost antibiotic function". The Scientist. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  4. "Unravelling the secrets of the superbugs". Hamilton Spectator. 24 October 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  5. "Canada Research Chair in Molecular Studies of Antibiotics". McMaster University. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  6. "Contact Us". McMaster University. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  7. Sello, Jason K. (October 2012). "Mining the Antibiotic Resistome". Chemistry & Biology. 19 (10): 1220–1221. doi:10.1016/j.chembiol.2012.10.005. PMID 23102216.
  8. King, Andrew M.; Reid-Yu, Sarah A.; Wang, Wenliang; King, Dustin T.; De Pascale, Gianfranco; Strynadka, Natalie C.; Walsh, Timothy R.; Coombes, Brian K.; Wright, Gerard D. (25 June 2014). "Aspergillomarasmine A overcomes metallo-β-lactamase antibiotic resistance". Nature. 510 (7506): 503–506. Bibcode:2014Natur.510..503K. doi:10.1038/nature13445. PMC 4981499. PMID 24965651.
  9. Yang, Jennifer (25 June 2014). "Superbug NDM-1's antibiotic foe may lie in a handful of soil". Toronto Star. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
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