Edinburgh University-heroes in the struggle against antibiotic resistance

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When the penny first dropped about the awful dangers of antibiotic resistance-with us, about 2016- we had the dread sense that no one, apart from Professor Colin Garner was doing anything about it. Five years on, how that situation has changed! Yesterday, a little throwaway tip in the New Scientist led us to the website of the University of Edinburgh. These dudes have five,- count’ em, five!- major lines of enquiry. We shall give you a brief resume, then let you enjoy the links below.

Er, what’s the situation in Global and local epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance like right now?

Is the uncontrolled use of antibiotics in agriculture rapidly building up resistance? Yep. Is looking through sewage in third world areas going to give us good data? You bet-nice work if you can get it. Are there major new populations of resistant Staphylococcus evolving? There certainly are! Try the link below

https://www.ed.ac.uk/edinburgh-infectious-diseases/amr/epidemiology

Shouldn’t someone be looking at better diagnostics?

Dr Till Bachman thinks so. Look at the work of his teams here: Bachman turns on the overdrive!

https://www.ed.ac.uk/edinburgh-infectious-diseases/amr/diagnostics

How why and what are bacteria evolving to beat antibiotics?

Well the University of Edinburgh is on the case. This bit is crucial

https://www.ed.ac.uk/edinburgh-infectious-diseases/amr/underpinning-mechanisms

What about alternatives and vaccines?

Nice idea, but Professor Dockrell got there first. Have a look here to see the amazing work of his teams

How can we stop people misusing antibiotics in future?

Professor Devi Sridhar (yes, the same one who’s always on Channel 4 news) is covering this

https://www.ed.ac.uk/edinburgh-infectious-diseases/amr/governance-stewardship-antibiotics

And Hats off to the University of Glasgow where Professor Lee Cronin is doing sterling work on trying to predict how bacteria will evolve resistance in future. (spoiler alert-this was the NS tip, but we couldn’t find a nice link for you than this one Can anyone out there help?)

Click to access Yoshida-NarCommun2017.pdf

Where there’s life, there’s hope

#antibioticresistance #evolution #antibiotics #bacteria #disease