Antimicrobials & Drug Resistance

BIOGRAPHY

Dr Johann Pitout is a Medical Microbiologist who completed his Medical Studies in South Africa in 1985 and qualified as a Medical Microbiologist by obtaining the FFPath (SA) degree from the College of Medicine of South Africa and M Med (Microbiol Path) from University of Stellenbosh in 1992. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Dr Christine Sander's laboratory in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He returned to South Africa in 1996 to take a position of Consultant Microbiologist at the University of Free State and in 1999 became the Head of Medical Microbiology. He moved to the United Arab Emirates during 2000 to initiate a Diagnostic Microbiology service in Abu Dhabi. During 2001 he was offered a position as a Medical Microbiologist at Calgary Laboratory Service and Associate Professor at the University of Calgary.

His main research interests are resistance to antimicrobial agents among Gram-negative bacteria especially the characterization and molecular epidemiology of newer beta-lactamases such as AmpC, extended-spectrum beta-lactamases and carbapenem-hydrolyzing enzymes. He has also been involved in population-based surveillance of studies investigating infections caused by organisms producing these newer types of beta-lactamases. A more recent interest is the molecular characterization of mobile elements involved in the spread and maintenance of resistance genes among Gram-negative bacteria. He has published several papers in this field.