A symposium on "Resolving the Antibiotic Paradox: Progress in Drug Design and Resistance" will be held today (May 29) in the Jaffar Auditorium of Scott Hall in the School of Medicine.

The daylong event was organized by Barry Rosen, chairman of biochemistry and molecular biology, and Shahriar Mobashery, associate professor of chemistry. Both are experts in bacterial resistance mechanisms.

The symposium title comes from the book The Antibiotic Paradox by Stuart Levy, M.D. It refers to the paradox that the more antibiotics are used to treat infectious diseases, the less effective they become. The problem is due in large part to the development of drug resistance in bacteria and other infectious microorganisms, but the problem also affects the ability to treat cancer.

This symposium will feature experts in the mechanisms of resistance and scientists from pharmaceutical companies, including Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc., Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research of Ann Arbor and the Astra Research Center in Boston. Two major speakers are Levy and Michael Gottesman, M.D., both of whom are world-renowned leaders in the area of drug use and resistance.

Levy is director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance and professor of molecular biology and microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine. He is the world's leading expert in the mechanism of bacterial resistance to the antibiotic tetracycline and on the spread of resistance.

Gottesman is a leading authority in the field of cancer chemotherapy. He is the deputy director for intramural research of the National Institutes of Health, as well as chief of the laboratory of cell biology at the National Cancer Institute.

The department of biochemistry and molecular biology and the department of chemistry sponsor the symposium. For more information call 577-3924 or 577-1512.