• Question: What specific diseases will you be working to provide antibiotics for?

    Asked by anon-231131 to Clio on 11 Nov 2019. This question was also asked by anon-231260.
    • Photo: Clio Andreae

      Clio Andreae answered on 11 Nov 2019: last edited 11 Nov 2019 4:35 pm

      The main ones at the moment are what’s called the ESKAPE pathogens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESKAPE) which are antibiotic resistant. It’s key we find new drugs for these as there haven’t been any for ages and resistance develops very quickly. There has been a funding problem for Antibiotic resistance due to the rapid development of resistance and companies and governments not willing to give out money for early research as it won’t be profitable. The attitude is changing now towards the importance of AMR and new drugs to treat bacteria.

      We primarily work on all the ESKAPE pathogens here (as this is what our clients are currently working on) and the Influenza virus. We are looking at new compounds to treat bacterial infections and novel vaccine targets for the flu and other bacterial pathogens.

Comments

  • Photo: Steven

    Steven commented on :

    I don’t work on a specific disease. As a team at Quadram we work to understand how bacteria evolve antibiotic resistance and how these bacteria protect themselves against antibiotics.

  • Photo: Jessica

    Jessica commented on :

    I dont work on specific diseases either, my work focuses on helping people understand what antibiotics are and how to usef them safely to stay health and to avoid antibiotic resistance

    Antibiotic resistance is where bugs stop responding to drugs like antibiotics. It is a natural process but it can speed up if we use antibiotics when they are not needed or if we dont finish a full course of medication. This is becasue the bugs start to figure out how to survive the antibiotics and can then spread these genes for survival throughout a whole population. This means that the next time antibiotics are used, they might not be as effective at clearing up the bug.

  • Photo: Bruno Silvester

    Bruno Silvester commented on :

    I particularly work on Acinetobacter baumannii which causes pneumonia and other infections. I also work on Campylobacter which is the #1 cause of bacterial food poisoning in the UK. Specifically, I understand how pathogens evolve and become resistant to antibiotics.