Dr. Stephanie Rolsma is an assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
Dr. Rolsma has experience in microbiology, vaccine development, and clinical research and her current research focuses on therapeutics and interventions in critically ill patients and clinical trials. Her primary research focuses on evaluating the utility of therapeutic drug monitoring of beta-lactam antibiotics in pediatric and adult patients, including cystic fibrosis patients and patients receiving intensive critical care. She also serves as a co-investigator in studies conducted through the NIH-funded Vanderbilt Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU), including Moderna and Janssen Phase 3 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine trials in adults, a Moderna Phase 2/3 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine trial in children, a Moderna Phase 1 SARS-CoV-2 variant vaccine trial in adults, a study of infant immune responses to RSV, and an intranasal influenza vaccine in pediatric patients. As a co-investigator for the CDC-funded Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment Network she works to address safety issues and clinical adverse events following vaccinations.
Dr. Rolsma received her B.S. in Microbiology from Michigan State University. She was awarded a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and M.D. from the Medical College of Wisconsin, where she was a part of the Medical Scientist Training Program. She completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
vaccine, vaccine safety, antibiotic pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, therapeutic drug monitoring
My primary research goal is to better understand antibiotic treatment failure during bacterial infections. Broadly speaking, antibiotic treatment failure refers to any undesirable outcome when treating an infection. Its causes are multifactorial, and they include a combination of both patient-specific (host-specific) factors and factors specific to the infecting bacteria (pathogen-specific). My research focuses on pathogen-driven mechanisms such as antibiotic resistance, antibiotic tolerance, and biofilm growth with additional interest in how these mechanisms occur within a host in the presence of an immune response. I am particularly interested in antibiotic treatment failure during Staphylococcus aureus infections. S. aureus is the most common bacterial cause of mortality in the United States and is associated with very high rates of antibiotic failure. Current research projects include 1) investigating the connection between amino acid metabolism in S. aureus and induction of antibiotic tolerance and 2) utilizing clinical S. aureus isolates to understand the connection between treatment failure, tolerance to combination antibiotic therapy, and daptomycin resistance. In addition to taking a translational approach by incorporating the study of clinical bacterial isolates, I am also using a combination of molecular biology, microbial genetics, immunology, and animal models to answer these questions. This research aims to not only better understand the mechanisms driving antibiotic treatment failure, but also to develop simple solutions to reverse it.
Antibiotic treatment failure, antibiotic tolerance, antibiotic resistance, Staphylococcus aureus, biofilms
