Shaun Pennington

Developing new models for studying Salmonella disease and treatment.

A novel intracellular co-infection model for the study of pathogenesis of invasive Salmonella disease and the assessment of novel treatment strategies.

Summary: Invasive Salmonella disease is a major cause of death in the developing world. While HIV is known to influence the risk presented by certain types of Salmonella, HIV does not influence the risk presented by other types of Salmonella. The reasons for these differences are unclear and a greater understanding may inform the development of new treatments that could save lives.

LSTM have developed a model, using human immune cells, to study coinfection and to trial treatments. Due to the rise of antibiotic resistance, it is important to be able to more quickly assess the efficiency of new treatments.

The more relevant the model, the more likely the data will reflect treatment in patients. The application of this coinfection model will further the development of new treatments, and will likely result in them being made available for clinical application more quickly.

Shaun's profile can be found here