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Associate Professor Adam Silver and Team Publish Study

September 12, 2023
Submitted By: Office of Marketing and Communication

A University of Hartford research group has published a study in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology. The team includes Adam Silver, associate professor of biology; Sean Congdon, biology lab coordinator; Timothy Becker, former associate professor of computing sciences; and nine grads who conducted research as undergraduates (John Guaglione, Omario Ricketts, Kyle Murphy, Megan Anderson, Darby Trowbridge, Yousuf Al-Abduladheem, Annabelle Phillips, Allison Beausoleil, and Alexus Stanley). 

The study examined the prevalence and antibiotic resistance profiles of Staphylococcus aureus on the UHart campus, as well as lifestyle factors that contribute to its nasal carriage. 

S. aureus is an opportunistic human pathogen that can frequently be found in various body locations, such as the upper respiratory tract, nostrils, skin, and perineum. S. aureus is responsible for causing a variety of conditions, which range from minor skin infections and food poisoning, to life-threating sepsis and endocarditis.  

The study found that 21 percent of the 500 samples collected were identified as containing S. aureus. The S. aureus isolates were resistant to penicillin (74%), azithromycin (34%), cefoxitin (5 percent), tetracycline (4 percent), and trimethoprim (1 percent), but sensitive to gentamicin and rifampin. They also identified several lifestyle factors (i.e., pet exposure, time spent at the University recreational facility, musical instrument usage, and tobacco usage) that positively correlated with S. aureus nasal colonization.

See the full-length article.