Antimicrobial Resistance: Rising to the challenge of a global health time bomb

Talks and interactive workshop
Biofilm of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Rod-shaped and spherical bacteria. Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Klebsiella, Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA. Image courtesy of Getty Images.

Antibiotics underpin all of modern medicine, but their use is being threatened by growing resistance in bacteria, fungi and viruses.

Antibiotic resistant bacteria currently kill over 700,000 people per year globally, but this number is predicted to rise to 10 million if we can’t stop the growth in antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

This workshop, led by Associate Professor Mat Upton, addressed an issue that has relevance to everybody – we have all felt the benefit of antibiotics and the World Health Organization states that their introduction has added over 20 years to the human life span.

However, a recent worrying development is the announcement by the Office of National Statistics (1 December 2017) that antibiotic resistance has now led to a reduction in our predicted life span. 

You were invited to find out how we screen naturally occurring bacteria for new antibiotics and use cutting-edge DNA sequencing methods to find new antibiotics and identify resistance in bacteria.

In this interactive session, attendees participated in the very early stages of the antibiotic discovery process and had hands-on experience of the most advanced DNA sequencing technology available.

Join the conversation on social media with #Plymresfest.

  • Atria A, Portland Square Building

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Programme

17:00: Welcome - Associate Professor Mat Upton

17:15–18:00: 

The threat that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses to global human health: an introduction to the topic - Associate Professor Mat Upton

World leading AMR research at the University of Plymouth that is helping to address this major issue: insight into the work of the Antibiotic Resistant Pathogens research group - Associate Professor Mat Upton and Dr Garry Farnham

  • Screening naturally occurring bacteria for new antibiotics
  • Cutting-edge DNA sequencing methods to find new antibiotics
  • Identifying resistance in bacteria

18:00–20:00: Interactive workshops

  • 18:00 - sequencing
  • 19:00 - antibiotic discovery

Attendees were able to get involved in the very early stages of the antibiotic discovery process and had hands-on experience of the most advanced DNA sequencing technology available.

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Discover more about our research in the following areas:

AMR infographic created by Toucan Design

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