How do pathogens become resistant to the drugs used to treat them? On April 23, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. PDT in Caltech's Beckman Auditorium, Smruthi Karthikeyan, the Gordon and Carol Treweek Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, and a William H. Hurt Scholar, will discuss the factors that drive antimicrobial resistance (AMR): clinical misuse of antibiotics, and resistance genes that exist in places like the human gut, wastewater, and natural ecosystems with no prior history of human influence.
In a public talk called "The Secret Life of Superbugs: How Antimicrobial Resistance Moves Between Humans and the Environment," Karthikeyan will explore how these environmental sources can serve as reservoirs in which pathogens acquire resistance genes that complicate treatment strategies for bacterial and fungal infections including pneumonia and E. coli. She will also discuss how searching for clues in an unusual place—sewer systems—may help in developing ways to combat the growing problem of AMR.
"Looking at the environment for unconventional solutions has been proven to be very effective, as we saw with the pandemic," Karthikeyan says. "It is very important to see how we can harness these rather new, unchartered waters to come up with therapeutics for a major global health crisis like antimicrobial resistance."
Starting at 6 p.m., members of Karthikeyan's microbial ecosystems lab will be present to answer questions about their current research on the function and activity of microbes in their natural environment.
Growing up in India, Karthikeyan was first introduced to science through The Magic School Bus book series. After studying chemical engineering as an undergraduate in her home country, she moved to the United States for graduate school, earning an M.S. in earth and environmental engineering from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the Caltech faculty in 2022, Karthikeyan was a postdoctoral research scholar at the UC San Diego School of Medicine where she served as the lead scientist for developing and implementing one of the largest SARS-CoV-2 wastewater genomic surveillance programs in the world. Her current research is focused on harnessing the power of microbes for human and environmental health.
The Watson Lectures offer new opportunities each month to hear how Caltech researchers are tackling society's most pressing challenges and inventing the technologies of the future. Join a community of curiosity outside Beckman Auditorium to enjoy food, drinks, and music together before each lecture. Interactive displays related to the evening's topic will give audience members additional context and information. The festivities start at 6 p.m. Guests are also encouraged to stay for post-talk coffee and tea as well as the chance to converse with attendees and researchers.
Learn more about the Earnest C. Watson Lecture Series and its history at Caltech.edu/Watson.
Watson Lectures are free and open to the public.
Watson Lectures are free and open to the public. Register online. A recording will be made available after the live event.
Recommended Reading:
Enjoy some reading recommendations from professor Smruthi Karthikeyan! Click on the titles below to purchase from our partner bookseller, Vroman's.
- I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong
- Microbes: The Unseen Agents of Climate Change by David L. Kirchman, Tristan Morris
- The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug: A Memoir by Steffanie Strathdee, Thomas Patterson, Teresa Barker
- The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life by David Quammen
- Life's Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable by Paul G. Falkowski
