Tohoku university school of medicine

Our department has been established since February 16, 2009. We conduct consulting practice called “Laboratory-Based Active Consultation” in Tohoku University Hospital. When blood or cerebrospinal fluid culture become positive or antibiotic-resistant organism is detected from clinical samples in the microbiology laboratory of our hospital, we immediately visit medical wards and discuss with doctors to suggest how to select and use appropriate antibiotic agents for treatment.
In addition, we have many researches aimed at being translational study between basic microbiology and clinical infectious diseases. Main research subjects in our laboratory are to evaluate the pathogenicity of causative organisms of diseases and to analyze resistant mechanisms of bacteria against antibiotics.

1)Hirakata Y et al : Efflux pump inhibitors reduce the invasiveness of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Int J Antimicrob Agents 34: 343-6 2009

2)Hirakata Y et al : Antimicrobial activities of piperacillin-tazobactam against Haemophilus influenzae including β-lactamase-negative ampicillin-resistant and β-lactamase positive amoxicillin-clavulanate-resistant isolates, and mutations in their quinolone-resistance determining regions. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 53: 4225-30 2009

3)Hatta M et al : Early production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha by Gr-1(+) cells and its role in the host defense to pneumococcal infection in lungs. FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol 10[Epub ahead of print] 2009

4)Yano H et al: Detection of respiratory viruses in nasopharyngeal secretions and middle ear fluid from children with acute otitis media. Acta Oto-Laryngologica 129:19-24 2009

5)Hirakata Y et al : Monolayer culture systems with respiratory epithelial cells for evaluation of bacterial invasiveness. Tohoku J Exp Med 220: 15-19 2010

Infectious diseases, Chemotherapy, Pathogenicity, Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, Infectious epidemiology, Active surveillance, Rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases, Infection control, Respiratory tract infection, Otorhinolaryngological infectious diseases