About
Dr. Fiester’s collaborations with Clemson University and Prisma Health, both as an administrator and faculty member, have resulted in numerous publications and presentations, shared equipment agreements, and other collaborations including a provisional patent Dr. Fiester holds for a novel antibiotic and a funded T35 grant wherein Clemson faculty provided research experiences for USCSOMG medical students. Dr. Fiester graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in zoology from Kent State University in 2005. He then pursued a Ph.D. in physiology from Kent State University which was awarded to him in 2011. Following graduate school, Dr. Fiester completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Miami University, where his research primarily focused on the study of the nosocomial pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii. Dr. Fiester currently maintains several faculty appointments in addition to his affiliation with Clemson University including an affiliation with the Department of Pathology at Prisma Health, a Research Professorship in the Department of Chemistry at Furman University and Clinical Associate Professorships at Florida State University College of Medicine Family and Internal Medicine Residency programs at Lee Health. A resident of Florida, Dr. Fiester additionally maintains a faculty appointment at Florida Gulf Coast University where he serves as the OneHealth Pre-Professional Programs Coordinator. He currently serves as the Region I Planning Coordinator for the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and has had leadership roles on the boards of the South Carolina, Connecticut Valley and Florida Branches of the ASM as well. In addition to his roles at ASM, Dr. Fiester has served as a reviewer or editor for several journals including Frontiers in Bacteriology, the Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education and Microorganisms as well as frequently reviewing for numerous other journals including Scientific Reports, Frontiers in Microbiology, PLoS ONE, BMC Microbiology, Microbial Pathogenesis and Future Microbiology. Dr. Fiester has reviewed grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), ASM and the Polish National Science Centre. He has received monetary awards from entities including the National Institutes of Health, Infectious Diseases Society of America, U.S. Department of Energy and NSF.
How their research is transforming health care
Dr. Fiester's current research interests focus on the elucidation of factors contributing to the virulence of multidrug-resistant ESKAPE (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter species) pathogens, with special attention given to Acinetobacter baumannii, drug discovery, and antimicrobial stewardship all to ease the burden of these infections on patients and healthcare systems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have categorized Acinetobacter as a serious threat requiring more monitoring and prevention activities due to the occurrence of multidrug-resistant isolates. According to the CDC, Acinetobacter causes 12,000 infections per year with 7,300 of those infections caused by multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter and 500 of those cases resulting in mortality in the United States alone. Unfortunately, the majority of research pertaining to A. baumannii has focused on antibiotic resistance properties while failing to explain the basic pathobiology or underlying virulence mechanisms of this bacterium. This sparsity of data has made drug discovery somewhat difficult due to the lack of candidate therapeutic targets. Dr. Fiester's research aims to better explain the pathobiology of A. baumannii thus uncovering targets for therapeutics. Dr. Fiester is particularly interested in the mechanisms by which A. baumannii is cytotoxic to eukaryotic cells, acquires iron under chelated conditions such as that found in the human host, secretes virulence factors and responds to environmental stressors. Dr. Fiester's research has even contradicted the traditional characterization of A. baumannii as non-hemolytic. In fact, the hemolytic phenotype of A. baumannii is paramount to A. baumannii virulence.
Health Research Expertise Keywords
Infectious diseases, clinical microbiology, bacteriology, antibiotic development, drug discovery, antimicrobial stewardship, Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae.
