Antibiotics are fundamental to modern medicine. As such, the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria - a result of years of antibiotic misuse in human medicine and animal agriculture - poses major threats to human health and well-being. Some have referred to the current situation as one of the greatest global societal challenges. Governments, funding agencies and other stakeholders all agree that addressing this problem requires efforts to create new antibiotics and establish stewardship programs to prevent the abuse of antimicrobials. However, there remain serious gaps in our understanding of the basic biology of antimicrobial resistance.
This syposium gathers four scientists actively engaged in addressing this concern. Specifically, their efforts aim to track the evolution of antibiotic resistance with new technologies for genotyping (genomics and whole genome sequencing), phenotyping and epidemiology as well as forward genetic studies to model these processes in the laboratory. Their studies have the potential to transform our ability to treat, control and predict antibiotic resistance in bacterial infections.
Program
Morning session 10.00 – 12.15:
Prof. Dan Andersson - Uppsala University
“Evolution of antibiotic resistance - the impact of selection pressures”
Prof. Diarmaid Hughes - Uppsala University
“The discovery and preclinical development of novel antibiotics”
Lunch break (light lunch will be served for attendees and speakers)
Afternoon session 13.15 -15.30:
Dr. Matthew Holden - University of St Andrews
“What’s so super about Staphylococcus aureus?”
Prof. Sebastien Gagneux - Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute
“Evolution and epidemiology of multidrug-resistant TB”
Venue: Georg Sverdrups Hus auditorium 2
University of Oslo - Blindern
Welcome!
The symposium is sponsored by CIME in conjunction with the EvoGene section of the Department of Biosciences, UiO.
For further information, contact:
- Michael Koomey (johnk@ibv.uio.no, 91394572),
- Ole Andreas Økstad (aloechen@farmasi.uio.no, 92603952)
- Hanne Winther-Larsen (h.c.winther-larsen@farmasi.uio.no, 484494571)