Dr. Rebecca LeBard
- Position: Associate Lecturer
- Room: 103, Biological Sciences
- Phone: (+61 2) 9385 2026
- Fax: (+61 2) 9385 1483
- email: r.lebard@unsw.edu.au
Professional Experience
- 2004-2006 Associate Lecturer, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney
- 2000-2001 Research Assistant, Tutor and Demonstrator, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney.
- 1997-1999 Business Analyst, Serco Australia
- 1993-1996 Laboratory Assistant, Sanitarium Research Laboratories
Research Contribution
Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterial pathogen that can be resistant to up to twenty different antimicrobial compounds. My research focuses on understanding the persistence of this resistance in staphylococci by investigating how conjugative and multiresistance plasmids are maintained.
My research has demonstrated the contribution of a multimer resolution system, res, to the amelioration of multimer formation and consequent contribution of segregational stability of pSK41. This is the prototype plasmid of a family of structurally similar conjugative multiresistance plasmids carried by the pathogen Staphylococcus aureus and clinically relevant coagulase-negative staphylococci. A recent addition to this family includes the plasmid involved in the first reported case of high-level vancomycin resistance in S. aureus. Although resolvase genes appear ubiquitous on conjugative and multiresistance staphylococcal plasmids, their impact of segregational stability had not previously been reported. Thus the study provided an evidentiary explanation for the observed prevalence of resolvase genes on such staphylococcal plasmids.
A second study characterised a novel plasmid partitioning system located on the prototypical S. aureus multiresistance plasmid pSK1. Homologous genes are widely conserved on staphylococcal multiresistance plasmids and in plasmids from other Gram-positive organisms.
Publications
- LeBard RJ, Jensen SO, Arnaiz IA, Skurray RA and Firth N (2008)
- A multimer resolution system contributes to segregational stability of the prototypical staphylococcal conjugative multiresistance plasmid pSK41
- FEMS Microbiology letters. 284: 58-67
- Kwong, S.M., Lim, R., LeBard, R.J., Skurray, R.A. and Firth, N. (2008)
- Analysis of the pSK1 replicon, a prototype from the staphylococcal multiresistance plasmid family.
- Microbiology-SGM. 154: 3084-3094.
- LeBard, R.J. and Quinnell, R. (2008)
- Using assessment audits to understand students’ learning obstacles.
- In: Symposium Proceedings: Visualisation and Concept Development, UniServe Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, pp 182-187.