ABX: The Antibiotic Discovery Accelerator Network
A collaborative platform to identify the gaps in the antibiotic discovery pipeline
The Antibiotic Discovery Accelerator Network (ABX) is an initiative for researchers engaged in antibiotic discovery and aims to encourage sharing of expertise and the development of new collaborations. The University of Plymouth has funded the initiative for 18 months, with the prospect of seeking additional future funding from UKRI or other relevant organisations to continue and expand the network activities. The ABX initiative is being led by early career researchers, whose aim is to bring together researchers in the field to identify gaps in the antibiotics discovery pipeline and provide solutions to the bottlenecks that impede the discovery of novel compounds.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is identified by the World Health Organisation as a global health threat forecast to result in 10,000,000 deaths per year by 2050. The O'Neill report (2016) commissioned by the Chief Medical Officer for the UK Dame Sally Davies outlined a plan for Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance On Ten Fronts.
The discovery of antibiotics with novel mechanism of action is vital to addressing one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today, and ABX intends to assist in addressing this problem and be part of the long-term strategy.
ABX aims to help develop a consortium of UK based academic and commercial sector experts. By sharing expertise, ABX will:
- identify bottlenecks in the discovery process
- develop strategies for improving the rate of discovery
- consolidate collaboration between UK network partners
- report conclusions to policy makers and research councils.
To do this, the ABX initiative will host a number of small network meetings to set up a dialogue where ideas can be exchanged and ways to collaborate and improve the discovery process can be discussed. If you would like to be involved, please click on Join the ABX Network below. The more people involved in this initiative, the more impact we can potentially create and the closer we become to developing a more secure and healthy future.
Privacy notice for ABX members registry publishing
Email antibioticdiscovery@plymouth.ac.uk with your name and contact details to join the ABX network and receive information about upcoming events.
Please join ABX for more information.
Most current antibiotic development initiatives concentrate on the progression of molecules post discovery, and do not focus on the discovery itself. It is estimated that only one compound in 1000 screened will reach the human testing level, and only 20 per cent of those will result in a usable product. In 2017, only seven out of 50 molecules in clinical phase were novel (WHO 2017).
Do deep sea sponges hold the key to antibiotic resistance?
Mat, who is also the lead for the University's
Antibiotic resistant pathogens research group
, led a talk at TEDxTruro questioning if new antibiotics can be found in deep, dark places.
ABX member registry
The ABX registry is a network of researchers across the UK and Ireland academic community working in antibiotic discovery.
