POSTGRADUATE
Battling the Superbugs
from the European Union. Kathryn Senior reports
universities across Europe are seeking solutions – thanks to major backing
Antibiotic resistance is a global health challenge. However, researchers at
T
here is no quick and easy solution to the huge public health challenge posed by antibiotic resistant strains
of bacteria, but there is a huge amount of research going on in this area. Europe has invested heavily in research to understand and combat antibiotic resistance for well over a decade, and the latest commitment of over €200 million across 15 European projects should see some exciting results.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kathryn Senior has been a feature writer for The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal since its inaugural issue in 2001 and has produced many insightful reports drawing attention to the challenge of antibiotic resistance.
60
www.eurograduate.com
Te incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus – otherwise known as MRSA – strains rose sharply in many European countries in the late 1990s and the EU Framework programme, which coordinates scientific research across Europe, placed antimicrobial resistance high on its research priority list. And it has remained there; the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research, recently confirmed antibiotic resistance as still a “priority area”.
Ongoing research
Current projects include ANTIRESDEV, a three-year project investigating the molecular
basis of antibiotic resistance. Co-ordinated by University College London, ten European research partners are involved, in locations ranging from Sienna in Italy, Stockholm in Sweden, Zurich and Berne in Switzerland. With a research budget of more than €5 million, the ANTIRESDEV groups are investigating how antibiotic resistant strains of indigenous bacteria arise in people treated with different antibiotics. Te results should help us understand more about how mobile genetic elements are passed between bacteria, and to develop new drug targets to limit this.
Epidemiological research projects such as CONCORD concentrate on how bacteria such as MRSA spread so fast in the healthcare environment and also why some strains spread in the community via animals such as farmed pigs. CONCORD is coordinated by researchers at the University of Utrecht and involves partners from Portugal, Poland, France, Scotland, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK. A priority of the project so far has been to characterise the new ST398 MRSA strains that can be transmitted and spread between pigs and people.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84