Dear All, Two brief items today:
First, a survey on OneHealth research priorities from WHO/FAO/OIE:
- “The Tripartite collaboration between World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)) is joining efforts to develop a One Health priority research agenda on antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
- “This is an invitation for stakeholders and professionals working on AMR across all sectors to contribute to this Agenda. Your responses will shape research questions that will be prioritized to inform scientific interest and investment. The survey should take about 15 minutes and it is open until 22 August 2021.
- “You can enter the survey via the WHO website:
- “Questions? Contact the team at: antibacterialpipeline@who.int
- The Impact initiatives and research coordination (IRC) Team; AMR Global Coordination Department, WHO AMR Division
- Tine Rikke Jørgensen (Project Lead)
- Jorge Raul Matheu Alvarez (IRC team lead)
The survey asks you to suggest concrete research topics that would strengthen the evidence base for transmission and impact of AMR, effective AMR interventions, implementation of multisector integrated surveillance to inform policy, and much more. Put on your thinking cap!
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Second, JPIAMR‘s Virtual Research Institute (JPIAMR-VRI) has expanded its digital platform. The platform now connects datasets through integration of various databases, such as McMaster’s CARD (Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database) database, the Resapath dataset sponsored by ANSES (the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety), the NIH isolate browser provided by the National Library of Medicine, and the ATLAS database sponsored by Pfizer, with more than 140 different public data sources already available in the DISQOVER platform provided by ONTOFORCE. Within the digital platform sophisticated search interface, you can look for (among other things!):
- the possible targets to an antibiotic molecule of choice.
- chemical information on antibiotics and its related biological assay data.
- determinants of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic resistance phenotypes.
- resistance mechanisms of organisms.
- resistance genes/plasmids and their sequence data information.
- AMR monitoring data of pathogenic bacteria isolated from diseased animals.
- clinical studies, patents, and publications.
- key opinion leaders in the field of AMR research.
- research organisations and academic institutions involved in AMR research all around the world.
It’s great to see both of these! I like the way the WHO-FAO-OIE survey seeks suggestions for concrete research projects and the way that digital resources such as the new JPIAMR-VRI platform (and don’t forget the Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard) ensures ready access to key data.
Cheers! All best wishes, –jr
John H. Rex, MD | Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd. | Operating Partner, Advent Life Sciences. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRex_NewAbx. See past newsletters and subscribe for the future: https://amr.solutions/blog/. All opinions are my own.
Current funding opportunities (most current list is here):
- CARB-X recently announced that their existing resources will be reserved to fund their existing portfolio (more than 80 total awards, and counting, as they include contracting from prior rounds). New rounds from CARB-X will occur only after new funding is obtained in 2021.
- It’s not a funder, but AiCuris’ AiCubator offers incubator support to very early stage projects. Read more about it here.
- The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes the global clinical development pipeline, incentives for AMR R&D, and investors/investments in AMR R&D.
- In addition to the lists provided by the Global AMR R&D Hub, you might also be interested in my most current lists of R&D incentives (link) and priority pathogens (link).
Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community (most current list is here):
- 14 Jul 2021 (virtual, 10.00-11.00 CET): The Role of Vaccines in Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance– WHO Perspectives and Country Experiences (Pakistan). WHO Webinar series, go here to register.
- 14 Jul 2021 (virtual, 16.00-17.00 CET): The Role of Vaccines in Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance– WHO Perspectives and Country Experiences (Zimbabwe). WHO Webinar series, go here to register.
- 20 Jul 2021 (virtual, 16.30-18.00 BST): BSAC-sponsored webinar entitled “Diagnostic-driven strategies for antimicrobial resistance in the UK” that will highlight AMR priorities and diagnostic needs for the UK’s NHS. Go here to register.
- 26 Jul-30 Jul 2021 (online): Small World Initiative Instructor Training Workshop – training for undergraduate professors in the wet lab techniques, parallel curricula, & pedagogical instruction to engage students in the hunt to find new antibiotic-producing soil microbes. Go here to register.
- 14-29 Aug 2021 (Marine Biology Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA): Residential course entitled “Molecular Mycology: Current Approaches to Fungal Pathogenesis.” This 2-week intensive training program has run annually for many years and gets outstanding reviews. Go here for details.
- 24-26 Aug 2021 (virtual, timings not stated but presumably EU-centered): The 5th edition of the annual AMR conference sponsored by the BEAM Alliance, CARB-X, the Novo REPAIR Impact Fund, the IMI Accelerator, and the European Biotechnology Network. The in-person version of this meeting is consistently excellent; the video-based version will have to do for 2021. Go here for details.
- 8-11 Oct 2021 (Aberdeen, Scotland): 10th Trends in Medical Mycology. Go here for details.
- 11-15 Oct 2021 (physical, somewhere in the UK): UK-focused Innovation Mission sponsored by Innovate UK in collaboration with AMR Insights and Oxford innovation. This free event seeks to connect AMR-focused start-ups, SMEs and Multinationals, Academia, Research Institutes, Regional Development Companies and other interested stakeholders in the UK, Europe and other parts of the world. Go here for more details.
- 16-24 Oct 2021 (Annecy, France): Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance (ICARe). This is a soup-to-nuts residential course on antibiotics, antibiotic resistance, and antibiotic R&D. The course is very intense, very detailed, and gets rave reviews. Registration is here and is limited to 40 students. Bonus feature: For obvious reasons, the course didn’t happen in 2020! But as a celebration of the course’s 5th year, a webinar version was held on 29 Oct 2020: go here to stream it.
- 5-8 Nov 2021 (Albuquerque, New Mexico): Biannual meeting of the MSGERC (Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium). Save-the-date announcement is here, details to follow.
- 6-11 Mar 2022 (Il Ciocco, Tuscany): Gordon Research Conference entitled “New Antibacterial Discovery and Development”. Go here for details, go here for the linked 5-6 Mar Gordon Research Seminar that precedes it.
- 25-28 Oct 2022 (Stellenbosch, South Africa): The University of Cape Town’s H3D Research Centre will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a symposium covering the Centre’s research on Malaria, TB, Neglected Tropical Diseases, and AMR. Go here to register.