About
Gerry Wright is the director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research and a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University.
He holds the Michael G. DeGroote Chair in Infection and Anti-Infective Research and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Antibiotic Biochemistry. His research is focused in the area of antimicrobial discovery, with a particular emphasis on natural products as sources of new antifungal and antibacterial agents. He is the co-founder of the Canadian Anti-Infective Innovation Network (www.cain-amr.ca). He has trained over 70 graduate students and postdocs, is the author of over 260 manuscripts and is a member of the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals.
Awards
- Distinguished University Professor, McMaster University, 2016
- NRC Research Press Senior Investigator Award, Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences, 2016
- R.G.E. Murray Award for Career Achievement, Canadian Society of Microbiologists, 2013
- Fellow American Academy of Microbiology, 2013
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, 2012
Relevant Publications
Tyers, M. and Wright G.D. (2018) Drug combinations: A strategy to expend the life of antibiotics in the 21st Century Nature. Rev. Microbiol. 17:141-155
N. Robbins, M. Spitzer, G.D. Wright (2016) Combinatorial strategies for combating fungal infections, Virulence 8:169-185
N. Robbins, M. Spitzer, W. Wang, N. Waglechner, D.J. Patel, J.S. O’Brien, L. Ejim, O. Ejim, M. Tyers, and G.D. Wright (2016) Discovery of ibomycin, a complex macrolactone that exerts antifungal activity by impeding endocytic trafficking and membrane function Cell Chem Biol 23:1383-94
J. Wildenhain, M. Spitzer, S. Dolma, D. Bellows, N. Jarvik, R. White, M. Roy, E. Griffiths, G.D. Wright and M. Tyers (2015) Machine learning uncovers chemical synergies that surmount buffering in the genetic landscape. Cell Systems 1:383-95.
N. Robbins, M. Spitzer, T. Yu, R. P. Cerone, A, Floyd, Y.-S. Bahn, J. Heitman, D.C. Sheppard, M. Tyers, and G.D. Wright (2015) An Antifungal Combination Matrix Identifies a Rich Pool of Adjuvant Molecules that Enhance Drug Activity Against Diverse Fungal Pathogens Cell Reports 13: 1491-92