For his invention to protect against bacterial contamination, specifically in industrial processes, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Dr. Ronald Worthington was awarded a U.S. patent.
Worthington is a faculty member in the School of Pharmacy. His invention relates to compositions and methods. His work obtained United States Patent No. 8,563,293.
“Our goal was to address the inappropriate use of antibiotics in industrial processes,” said Worthington. “There are various scenarios where antibiotics are being used, and it’s imposing huge problems in the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains.”
Use of antibiotics to control bacterial contamination in industrial production operations is widespread, but suffers from a major drawback – acquired immunity to antibiotics over time, reducing the effectiveness of the antibiotics.
Worthington’s invention uses a systems biology approach to develop a co-resident microbial population that can produce proteins with bactericidal properties. It can be used in various fermentation applications in which bacterial contamination is a problem.
“Ethanol biofuel production is the most prominent commercial application, where lactic acid bacteria contamination can reduce production efficiency,” said Worthington. “Other potential uses can be found in alcoholic beverage production and other fermentation processes, preservation of foods, and possibly as topical antibiotics for human and animal use.”
Dr. Gireesh Gupchup, dean of the SIUE School of Pharmacy, praised Worthington’s contribution to providing a novel solution to real problems that will help our region.
“Dr. Worthington is to be commended for the work that he has done to control lactic acid bacterial growth,” said Gupchup.
Worthington joined the SIUE School of Pharmacy in 2005. His research interests include pharmacogenomics and bioinformatics. He earned both bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Washington University in St. Louis.
Following postdoctoral appointments at Washington University in St. Louis, G.D. Searle and Texas Tech University, Worthington assumed a faculty position in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. He later held positions at G.D. Searle and Divergence, Inc. as a senior research scientist before joining SIUE.
Photo: Dr. Ronald Worthington, SIUE School of Pharmacy.