Journal of Antibiotics Research

Dr. Ghassan M. Matar is presently working as a Professor in the Department of Experimental Pathology, Immunology & Microbiology and Laboratory Director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research at the Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon. He received his PhD in Basic Medical Sciences (Microbiology) from AUB and was a post-doctoral fellow (Fulbright) at the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He was then appointed as Research Microbiologist at the Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, CDC. He was also appointed as Assistant Dean at the Faculty of Health Science, AUB. In addition, he serves on Faculty of Medicine (FM) and University wide committees at AUB, in WHO as resource advisor in the Advisory Group on Integrated Surveillance of Antimicrobial Agents (AGISAR), and as American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Ambassador for Lebanon. His Laboratory also has a PulseNet Laboratory certified by CDC/NAMRU3. To present he served as an academic advisor to 40 graduate students, published around 87 articles in reputable refereed international journals and presented 115 abstracts in international, regional and local conferences. He received funding from various extramural sources such as: CDC, U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), WHO/AGISAR, PulseNet (CDC, WHO, MOPH) and others.

His research interests include: 1) Molecular mechanisms of resistance to antimicrobial agents in pathogenic bacteria, namely methicillin resistance in S. aureus, macrolide resistance in S. pneumoniae and carbapenem resistance in ESBL and non-ESBL producing Enterobacteriaceae, 2) Potential Treatment with antibacterial agents singly or in combination of E. coli O157:H7 and E. coli O104:H4 infections in a mouse model, 3) Genetic basis of biofilm production in P. aeruginosa isolated from patients with nosocomial infections and potential inhibition of biofilm formation by antifungal agents in in vitro and in vivo studies, 4) Expression levels of virulence factors produced by pathogenic bacterial agents in relation to disease production, 5) Molecular epidemiology of foodborne diseases and nosocomial infections, 6) Assessment of combination therapy in infections caused by carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae harboring various carbapenemase encoding genes, 7) Molecular characterization of Listeria monocyogenes from food items.