Stuart Levy, a researcher and physician at Tufts University, died September 4 after an extended illness. He was 80 years old.
Levy is best known for his pioneering research on antibiotic resistance. In 1976, his team published a study showing that antibiotic-resistant bacteria could be transferred from the intestinal flora of farm animals to workers, with implications for places such as hospitals. And in 1978, he discovered that one way bacteria thwart antibiotics is through efflux pumps, transport proteins that organisms use to extrude substances into their environment.
He was the director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance at Tufts University School of Medicine and president of the International Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics. He also founded Paratek Pharmaceuticals with molecular biologist Walter Gilbert and was a past president of the American Society for Microbiology.
Levy was born November 21, 1938, and grew up in ...
