There’s worldwide concern over the growing issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and its impact on the effective treatment of dangerous infectious diseases.
While restricting the use of antibiotics may prevent the situation getting worse, it cannot address the high level of AMR already present. This is caused by a number of factors including non-antibiotic based selection for other existing resistances circulating in the environment and the maintenance of self-transmissible antibiotic resistance genes that may support maintenance of genes in the microbiome.
Research in this theme focuses on several priority pathogens including the ESKAPE pathogens; Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Enterococcus and Pseudomonas, as well as E. coli alongside other key veterinary and public health pathogens. Many of the Gram-negative members of this group are seen as reservoirs of self-transmissible AMR plasmids. These mobile elements are predicted to play a major role in the development of multi- and pan-drug resistant bacteria.
A targeted team approach
Research is this theme is broadly covered by two areas; the understanding of selection, maintenance and transmission of AMR and the development of novel therapies to control existing resistant bacteria. Through this research we are starting to understand the prevalence and basis of AMR within the farm and wider environments. This understanding will help to evaluate the scale of AMR including the drivers for selection and maintenance of antimicrobial resistance genes in normal farm practice. Concurrently we are also isolating and creating advanced bacteriophages to target and kill specific antibiotic resistant strains.
Funding and collaboration
We work with leading experts from a wide range of organisations, as well as a diverse mix of funding bodies.
Publications in this field
Our team regularly publishes papers on antimicrobial resistance and bacteriophage therapies in a whole range of respected journals.