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Hurdle named interim head of the Vashisht College of Medicine’s Department of Translational Medical Sciences
Microbiology professor also directs a center and the postdoctoral training program at the Institute of Biosciences and Technology
Julian Hurdle is a nationally recognized expert on antibiotic resistance and drug discovery targeting the gut pathogen Clostridioides difficile.
Julian G. Hurdle, PhD, microbiology professor and associate head of the Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine Department of Translational Medical Sciences housed in the Houston-based Texas A&M Health Institute of Biosciences and Technology (IBT), has been named interim department head, effective Feb. 1.
He also serves as director of the IBT’s Center for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases and IBT’s postdoctoral training program.
“Dr. Hurdle brings the deep knowledge and administrative acumen that will make this period of transition seamless,” said Amy Waer, MD, FACS, MPSA ‘23, Jean and Tom McMullin Endowed Dean of the Vashisht College of Medicine.
A nationally recognized expert on antibiotic resistance and drug discovery targeting the gut pathogen Clostridioides difficile, Hurdle led the team that discovered how C. difficile developed resistance to the antibiotic metronidazole and how resistance to the powerful antibiotic vancomycin led to poorer patients outcomes. He has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health. Hurdle’s team currently is working to develop alternative treatments and pathogen-targeted antibiotics that support patients’ microbiome and immune systems.
He earned a Bachelor of Science with high honors from The University of the West Indies, Barbados, obtained a PhD in molecular microbiology from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, and conducted postdoctoral training at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. He joined the Institute of Biosciences and Technology in 2015, after an assistant professorship at the University of Texas at Arlington.
His extensive service activities include serving on national grant review panels and an editorial board member of top-tier journals. He is a founding member of the Antimicrobial Resistance Consortium within the Gulf Coast Consortia in Houston and received the Vashisht College’s Senior Faculty Research Excellence Award in 2023.
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