Margaret IP

Margaret IP
Professor, Department of Microbiology Faculty of Medicine
University of Hong Kong, China

Biography

Dr. Margaret IP received her medical training at the University of Southampton and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom. She is a clinical microbiologist with research interests in the epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of Gram positive cocci incl. Streptococcus pneumoniae, MRSA and Group B streptococcus. She also has an interest in surveillance, laboratory diagnoses of infections, antibiotic stewardship and infection control.

Research Interest

Her research interests are Surveillance and study of antibiotic resistance determinants in Streptococcus pneumoniae and other streptococci and multidrug resistant gram negative bacteria, and their resistant mechanisms. Molecular epidemiology of Gram positive cocci incl. typing, and characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Hong Kong, Group B streptococcus (Streptococcus agalactiae) and in other streptococci. Animal infection model to study pathogenesis. Clinical epidemiology of such infections, incl. pneumococcal bacteraemia and meningitis studies, colonisation of Group B streptococcus in pregnancy, respiratory infections in children, adults and in chronic airway diseases. Assessment and development of the laboratory methods for diagnosis. This includes molecular methods of diagnosis, evaluations and applications of new methods in the clinical setting. Microbial Genomics: Whole bacterial genome sequencing in pathogenic bacteria of importance in Hong Kong and their related disease pathogenesis and antimicrobial resistance. Screening of natural and chinese herbs with antimicrobial activities and mechanisms of actions.