Dr. Michael Gilmore is the Sir William Osler Professor of Ophthalmology (microbiology and immunobiology), director of the Infectious Disease Institute at Harvard Medical School, and chief scientific officer at Mass Eye and Ear. Dr. Gilmore is the founder and principal investigator of the Harvard-wide program on antibiotic resistance, and of the academic/industry consortium Boston-Area Antibiotic Resistance Network (BAARN). His research focuses on the evolution and development of multi-drug resistant strains of enterococci, streptococci, and staphylococci, and the development of new therapeutic approaches. Currently, he is developing new ways to prevent and treat the most problematic multi-drug resistant infections. He serves on numerous advisory boards and committees for public (NIH, FDA, VA, NSF, EU) and private organizations, mainly focused on drug discovery, antibiotic resistance, and bacterial pathogenesis.
Dr. Gilmore’s laboratory focuses on developing new ways to treat and prevent antibiotic resistant infection of the eye, ear, skin, and other sites caused by enterococci and staphylococci. Enterococci and staphylococci are leading causes of multi-drug resistant infection, particularly following surgery and in hospitalized patients. Since 2005, more people in the U.S. have been killed by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection than by HIV/AIDS, and antibiotic resistant infection is adding more than $30 billion per year to health care costs.