George Zhanel, PharmD, PhD, FCCP

Accepting graduate students

Master's - yes

PhD - yes

Research themes

• Antimicrobial resistant infections
• Diagnostics
• Discovery and development
• Pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics
• Treatment and prevention of infection
• Vaccines

Consulting interests

Discovery and development of agents used to prevent and/or treat infectious diseases including diagnostics, antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antiparasitics, antituberculers, antiseptics, preservatives, disinfectants, sterilizers, agents with antimicrobial activity and vaccines.

Keywords

• Agents with antimicrobial activity
• Antimicrobials
• Antimicrobial Resistance
• Diagnostics
• Pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics
• Prevention of infection
• Treatment of infection
• Vaccines

Research groups

Canadian Antimicrobial Resistance Alliance (CARA, www.can-r.com)

Research summary

As research director of the Canadian Antimicrobial Resistance Alliance, Dr. Zhanel's research interests include:

• Understanding the prevalence epidemiology and spread of antimicrobial resistant infections
• Describing the clinical relevance of resistant infections
• Identifying and developing rapid diagnostic methods to rapidly diagnose infections
• Investigating the cellular and molecular mechanisms of resistance
• Assessing activity of marketed and investigational antimicrobials as well as agents with antimicrobial activity (e.g., preservatives, antiseptics, disinfectants, sterilizers)
• Discovering novel antimicrobials (holder of several patents) and assessing the properties
• Efficacy and biological evolution and influence of select vaccines
• Research using pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modeling and Monte Carlo analyses to provide optimal treatment and prevention of infections is occurring
• Assessing the medical and economic outcomes of infections as well as studying the relationships between antimicrobial usage/stewardship including in dermatology (oral and topical) as well as vaccination and the development of antimicrobial resistant infections

Both community-associated and healthcare-associated infections and pathogens are of interest including respiratory infections (including Streptococcus pneumoniae, influenza and COVID-19 infections), urinary tract infections, skin/soft tissue infections, intra-abdominal infections, nosocomial infections in hospitalized patients as well as in intensive care units, bacteremic infections, Extended Spectrum b-lactamase (ESBL) producing and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) including community-associated CA-MRSA, vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), Clostridium difficile, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and antifungal resistant infections.