Miranda Stiernborg, researcher in molecular biology at the Translational Psychiatry group, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, receives an international postdoc grant of SEK 3.9 million from the Swedish Research Council to study recurrent urinary tract infections in women.
During the period 2024-2027, Miranda Stiernborg will divide her time between the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts, USA and the Karolinska Institutet to study “Recurrent urinary tract infections in women despite antibiotic treatment: new methods that reveal the dynamics between the host and the bacterial flora”.
“Urinary tract infections, primarily caused by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC), present a substantial global health challenge. The increasing antibiotic resistance in UPEC highlights the pressing need for better insights into the factors behind recurrent urinary tract infections (rUTIs) in otherwise healthy individuals. Our aim is to create a detailed, comprehensive map of the host, pathogen and other microbiota factors that lead to rUTI”, says Miranda Stiernborg.
This will provide novel prevention and therapeutic strategies for rUTI, reduce the development of antibiotic drug resistant uropathogens and identify strains at risk for developing multi-resistance.