Theme 2 Workshop: Accelerating therapeutic and diagnostics development
Workshop Report ...... 2 1. Background ...... 2 2. Format of the Workshops ...... 2 3. Workshop presentations ...... 3 4. Breakout sessions and group discussions ...... 3 5. Research challenges ...... 4 6. Mechanisms to address some of the challenges ...... 6 7. Update on Theme 2 ...... 8 Annex 1: AMR Small molecules Delegate Booklet ...... 9 Background Information ...... 10 Agenda ...... 11 Delegates ...... 13 Contact Details ...... 37 Annex 2: AMR Alternatives Delegate Booklet ...... 38 Background Information ...... 39 Agenda ...... 40 Delegates ...... 42 Contact Details ...... 69 Annex 3: AMR Diagnostics Delegate Booklet ...... 70 Background Information ...... 71 Agenda ...... 72 Delegates ...... 74 Contact Details ...... 95
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Workshop Report
1. Background
The research councils, along with other UK funders, have been working together to identify a number of research opportunities and challenges to tackling the rise in AMR. A cross-council initiative led and managed by the MRC was launched in June 2014 (www.mrc.ac.uk/amr). The initiative would foster a multidisciplinary approach needed to make a step change in addressing the AMR challenge.
Funders have worked together to identify four key themes to target investments over the next five years. These themes would foster collaboration between diverse disciplines and share information across the public and private sectors. This would enable access to tools, compound libraries, datasets and screens to acquire new insight into the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria, the evolution of resistance and to drive the discovery of new diagnostic, preventative and therapeutic strategies for bacterial infections, particularly important for antibiotic resistant bacterial strains.
The four themes identified were: Theme 1: Understanding the resistant bacteria in the context of the host Theme 2: Accelerating therapeutic and diagnostics development Theme 3: Understanding the real world interactions Theme 4: Behaviour within and beyond the healthcare setting
The MRC organised three workshops under Theme 2: ‘Small molecule approaches to antibiotics – how can we develop, enhance and target?’, ‘Alternative approaches for the treatment of bacterial infections’ and ‘Developing diagnostic tools for bacterial infections and AMR’. These workshops aimed to bring together researchers from a range of scientific disciplines (from academia and industry) to discuss the key challenges associated with AMR, to encourage networking and collaborative research and to scope a funding call that was to be launched in Spring 2015.
2. Format of the Workshops
The aims of the workshop were to:
● encourage networking of researchers across scientific areas to forge strong multi-disciplinary research teams, ● encourage partnerships between academia and industry to accelerate the exploitation of small molecule therapeutics, ● provide an opportunity for consortia to start to come together resulting in the development of strong, innovative outline proposals, ● provide an opportunity to have input into funding models, assisting the Research Councils to shape the call for Theme 2 of the AMR initiative.
Participant lists for the three workshops are available in Annex 1: AMR Small molecules Delegate Booklet, Annex 2: AMR Alternatives Delegate Booklet and Annex 3: AMR Diagnostics Delegate Booklet.
Each workshop comprised of a series of short presentations followed by breakout sessions and plenary feedback sessions. The presentations from key academic and industrial scientists set the scene for the day and provided topics to be discussed at the break-out sessions.
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3. Workshop presentations
Small molecules workshop – held on the 25th November 2014 Dr Paul Brennan (University of Oxford) chaired the day which opened with Dr Ghada Zoubiane (MRC) introducing Theme 2 of the Cross Council AMR initiative and the aims of the workshop. Keynote presentations from Dr Jared Silverman (Cubist Pharmaceuticals) and Dr John Ridden (Blueberry Therapeutics) provided the industry perspective to small molecules research and an outlook on their own experiences which included successes and challenges. They both emphasised the importance of collaboration in drug discovery, requiring a dynamic team with the right expertise at the right time. Shorter talks delivered by Professor Tim McHugh (UCL), Dr Mark Graham (MG Toxicology Consulting), Professor Chris Schofield (University of Oxford) and Dr James Mittra (University of Edinburgh) discussed the importance of cross-disciplinary working across the fields of public health, toxicology, organic chemistry and social sciences. Although distinct fields, these presentations highlighted the necessity of working across research areas to address the problem of AMR.
Alternative approaches workshop – held on the 27th November 2014 Professor Paul Moss (University of Birmingham) chaired the day which opened with Dr Desmond Walsh (MRC) introducing Theme 2 of the Cross Council AMR initiative and the aims of the workshop. A keynote presentation from Professor Peter Dobson (University of Oxford) delivered his perspective on the use of nanoparticulate technology as an approach to treating infection. He provided examples of how this approach has been used and how it could be further utilised in the future. He also highlighted the challenges with the technology that exist and emphasised the importance of collaborative approaches as it develops. Shorter talks delivered by Professor Simon Foster (University of Sheffield), Professor Peter Taylor (University College, London), Professor Ken Smith (University of Cambridge) and Dr Adam Wilkinson (Phico Therapeutics) discussed the importance of cross-disciplinary working to integrate scientific disciplines. These presentations reiterated how research into alternative therapeutics to address the problem of AMR is warranted and has proved to be successful in the treatment of some bacterial infections.
Diagnostics workshop – held on the 1st December 2014 Professor Stephen Holgate (University of Southampton) chaired the day which opened with Dr Ghada Zoubiane (MRC) introducing Theme 2 of the Cross Council AMR initiative and the aims of the workshop. A keynote presentation delivered by Professor Alison Holmes (Imperial College, London) provided an overview of her own experiences in diagnostics research, including research projects that were unsuccessful and the challenges in the field that currently exist. Shorter talks delivered by Professor John Wain (University of East Anglia/Discuva), Dr Jon Read (University of Liverpool), Professor Chris Toumazou (Imperial College, London), Professor Chris Butler (University of Oxford) and Professor Joyce Tait (University of Edinburgh) discussed the importance of cross-disciplinary working with academia and industry across different technical areas of diagnostics research but also more broadly including mathematical modelling, public health and social sciences.
4. Breakout sessions and group discussions
Two breakout sessions provided opportunities for delegates to discuss the different issues faced by researchers from different disciplines. A group discussion on the topic of funding for Theme 2 allowed researchers to actively contribute to how the theme should be supported. A rapporteur from each group summarised the outcomes from these discussions.
Breakout session 1: Translating new discoveries into the clinic.
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The participants discussed the biggest challenges in product discovery and development and how to learn from past failures when trying to move new therapies forwards.
Breakout session 2: Promoting interdisciplinary research. The participants discussed what disciplines they believed were required to be included in a proposal, how best to encourage interdisciplinary research and what resources they needed to deliver this research.
Group discussion: Funding interdisciplinary research. The funders asked the participants to contribute to a discussion on what they believed the best funding models to deliver the aims of Theme 2 of the AMR initiative were following the discussions of the day.
5. Research challenges
• Defining the requirement: It is widely believed that broad spectrum antibiotics are overused both in the clinic and in the community. A companion diagnostic would enable a more relevant and tailored antibiotic to be prescribed. However, it is important to understand what is required from a diagnostic and it is essential that early discussions are initiated with the end user ie the clinician or veterinarian. For example, rapid detection of an infecting organism is required in some instances. However, speed may not be the key attribute for all diagnostics, for less severe infections this organism identification could be determined in slower time and therefore defer antibiotics from being prescribed. Ideally the diagnostic test should be simple to use requiring little training, robust and able to be used in different environments (including at point of care) without requiring complicated equipment. It should have good specificity and a low false positive rate. How the data generated by the test is analysed should also be considered and discussed with the end user. The diagnostic at its simplest would determine whether a patient is infected with a specific organism. A more sophisticated diagnostic would provide information including the bacterial species, strain and sensitivity profile to specific antibiotics. However, a diagnostic test that is too complicated to use may not be considered in a clinical setting.
• Understanding the infecting organism and the host response to infection: Understanding how an organism behaves in vivo is essential when selecting a therapeutic. Knowing which virulence factors are expressed within the host may allow a more specific and targeted treatment regimen. The issues associated with treating non-culturable bacteria, persistent bacteria and bacteria in different physical states were discussed as areas that require further investigation. Preventing commensal organisms acquiring resistance and becoming pathogenic variants was also raised as being a concern.
Detecting and diagnosing bacteria from a sample taken from a patient can be further complicated by host factors. It is acknowledged that there is a limited understanding of the markers of infection from infecting bacteria and the host and how they interact with each other. Further study is required to identify the predictors of infection which would discriminate between infection and inflammation. The sensitivity of a diagnostic was highlighted as being important. There were concerns that sensitivity could be affected by commensal organisms and therefore this should be considered when developing a novel test.
A fundamental understanding of a disease process and the immune response to infection within a host is essential to ensure the most appropriate therapeutic is prescribed. This level of understanding is considered to be limited and requiring further study, however bacterial and host plasticity make this a challenging prospect. Understanding how some host responses result in the clearance of an invading organism and how some have deleterious effects is required, Page 4 of 95
and would aid in the development of novel medicines, which could include immunomodulators and prodrugs. However, these types of therapeutics may not be appropriate for all patients. Different patient groups may have a requirement for different therapies, for example the immunocompromised population. Other factors, for example, aging and previous medical interventions may have an effect on the host response and also on the level and composition of commensal organisms, so need careful consideration.
• The choice of drug target: Participants discussed the approach that should be taken with regards to the choice of drug targets. It was agreed that there is merit in the identification of new targets and also in existing validated targets. Targeting multiple sites within a pathogen would reduce the risk of AMR developing. Combination therapy approaches have shown to be successful for the treatment of diseases including tuberculosis. It was agreed that the development of new chemical entities with better ‘druggable’ properties should continue to be a priority.
• Understanding the regulatory requirements: There are many novel therapies that are being researched as alternatives to antibiotics including vaccines, phage therapy, antimicrobial peptides, bacteriocins, medical devices with antimicrobial surfaces and immunomodulators. A number of these therapies have not been previously licensed and there was discussion regarding the difficulties in achieving licensure in the future. Better communication with regulatory bodies at an earlier stage of development was considered to be essential. The importance of generating strong, reproducible experimental data will support these discussions. Attitudes towards the development of alternative therapies are changing and establishing a relationship with the regulators at an early stage will reduce the risk and cost of failure. The importance of thinking about toxicological analysis at the onset of drug development was emphasised. Between 60-70% of drug candidates fail at the pre-clinical safety stage. This could be avoided if the necessary experiments are performed earlier in the development process.
• Availability of resources: Recruitment difficulties in specific scientific disciplines were highlighted, particularly noticeable in the area of medicinal chemistry. Future recruitment requires a targeted approach and more flexibility for academia and industry to work together. Better communication between academia and industry would strengthen relationships and aid with resource sharing. Increased visibility to data held by pharmaceutical companies would prevent duplication of effort and sharing what was learnt from failed approaches would be of significant benefit. It could also aid in key go/no go decisions being made at an earlier stage of development and with the repurposing of drugs for the treatment of different indications. Gaining access to data and materials (bacterial strains, genome sequences, novel therapies) between different universities was also highlighted as being difficult and a better mechanism to make these available to the research community is required. Greater emphasis on the impact of cross-discipline collaboration should be placed on such linkages, which needs to be driven from the universities themselves. How big data is handled in the future is another challenge that was discussed and requires further consideration.
• Limited delivery systems and animal models: Improved delivery systems to target novel therapies to the site of infection are required. These could include systems that allow therapies to persist for longer within the host, have a more sustained release, or that target bacteria grown in a biofilm, which are known to be difficult to disrupt and subsequently treat. These approaches could be used alongside licensed therapies in an attempt to improve efficacy. It is acknowledged that good, validated animal models are limited and the development and characterisation of alternative models are warranted to enable the assessment of novel therapeutics as they are developed. These could include humanised mouse models or better in vitro models, for example, artificial gut models.
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• Changing practice: It is important to consider the long term goal when trying to change practice, as re-education can be challenging, requiring good communication between the researcher and end user. It is important that the clinical community understands the benefits of how this would help patients, allowing them to think about the patient needs and limiting unnecessary antibiotic use. The research community need to understand the clinical need and how their areas can complement each other. Other agencies, for example, DEFRA and the regulatory bodies may also provide useful input for both communities. Forums could be organised as a mechanism for such discussions and to incentivise adoption of different practices.
6. Mechanisms to address some of the challenges
• Linking with industrial partners: Participants discussed the importance of working with industry for the development and translation of novel therapies and diagnostics into the clinic; however, these linkages with industry need to be real and not ‘tagged on’ to applications. Industry co-funding relevant PhDs with universities would be a mechanism of establishing mutually beneficial links. It is believed that academic/industry interactions were being hampered by delays in signing formal agreements around intellectual property. The handling and sharing of existing data considered to have IP has been a problem and it is important that this should not be seen as a barrier to working with industry. Better communication between university departments and industry with regards to IP would help foster inter-disciplinary research. Publishing negative data would also be useful in learning lessons and some pharmaceutical companies have started doing this.
More flexibility within and between institutes, particularly universities, would aid with working across disciplines and sectors. More support for technology transfer offices within universities was highlighted as being a necessary requirement. However, there also needed to be more incentives for industry to re-engage in small molecule related research. There is interest in the business model development but on a scientific level, Innovate UK, the Research Councils and charities (especially Antibiotic Discovery UK), could help establish stronger links between academic and industry researchers.
• Interdisciplinary working: The importance of understanding what is required in the clinic is essential as this will identify the disciplines required to form a consortia. Different problems will require different skill sets but it is important that all consortia have a strong scientific focus and contain researchers with the appropriate knowledge and expertise. Disciplines to be considered for involvement could include chemists, engineers, microbiologists, toxicologists, modellers, economists and representatives from public health and the social sciences. The challenge is in bringing these groups together. A number of mechanisms were highlighted including regular focussed scientific meetings, sandpits, networking forums, overlapping conferences and access to databases of expertise containing information of interested parties, research interests and resources. The organisation of such events could lie with the Universities, learned societies, funders and charities, the availability of funding for travel and networking is considered important. Good project management within a consortium is essential to ensure delivery and to prevent research silos. The appointment of a network co-ordinator involved throughout and at the end of projects to maintain linkages that have been established was considered to be a worthwhile addition to a project team. More interaction with the end user, for example, clinicians or veterinarians is also important and the benefits from these interactions should be highlighted.
Better communication with heads of university departments to make them more aware of the impact and importance of collaboration and inter-disciplinary working and to be less reliant on publication records would foster better collaborative working. There is a requirement for cross- Page 6 of 95
disciplinary research to be rewarded; this is a behavioural change which needs to be driven from academia. The current restrictions on members of the same group publishing scientific outputs were considered to be a barrier to inter-disciplinary research. Allowing academics to take breaks from teaching would free up time for inter-discipline networking although teaching the next generation of medical students and infectious disease specialists is considered to be a high priority. The participants highlighted that more public/private partnerships may progress the field as it has with tuberculosis research. More interaction with the relevant learned societies and charities is also required.
• Capability building and resource: The generation of research centres where experts from different disciplines are located was discussed and viewed favourably as a mechanism which would allow more cross discipline research. It is acknowledged that collaborative working requires scientists to meet in person and being located in the same place would be advantageous, the Imperial College AMR network and the John Innes Centre were given as examples of where this has worked successfully. Having a national facility that could be accessed for routine analysis, for example pharmacokinetics or toxicology screening was also deemed a useful resource. The participants felt that being more aware of the resources available in specific institutes’ particularly animal models and high containment facilities would be useful. This information could be shared through a resource database or by developing an application to be used on a smart phone. Using crowd sourcing and different technologies, for example Twitter were also discussed as mechanisms to build capability for the future.
A scheme allowing PhD students and/or post-doctoral scientists to ‘discipline hop’ and spend time in different laboratories would encourage more communication between areas. Joint PhD supervision across disciplines was also suggested as a way of making researchers from different fields more engaged. Funding opportunities, similar to the EPSRC ‘bridging the gap’ funding call which requires different disciplines to work together, were considered a good idea. Funding cross discipline fellowships and the training of future PhD students and medical students was considered critically important requiring a long term approach to skill development. Encouraging students to study key subjects including chemistry is required, although how this is implemented needs consideration. Teaching and education were emphasised as being of huge importance for the future.
• Improved funding models A number of funding options were discussed and the participants felt that both large collaborative grants and smaller innovative grants would be most appropriate for research. Smaller amounts of money made available quickly may also be useful to answer specific questions. The time it takes to receive funding and the time pressures placed on academics were viewed as barriers to generating new collaborations, these interactions need to be seen as beneficial and rewarded. Studentship exchange and fellowships with specific AMR focus were highlighted as excellent ways of promoting interdisciplinary research. The participants agreed that this could be particularly valuable to integrate chemists within AMR research projects. Public engagement was also highlighted as being important and charity involvement suggested as a mechanism for doing this. Again, the learned societies could also play a role in this. Matched funding from other sources was discussed including universities, industry or through crowd funding. Identifying venture capitalists that may be interested in AMR research was also discussed. It was acknowledged that there could be many ways to contribute to this initiative.
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7. Update on Theme 2
If you have any further questions please contact:
Or visit: http://www.mrc.ac.uk/research/initiatives/antimicrobial-resistance/
This Cross Council initiative is supported by:
• Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) • Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) • Medical Research Council (MRC) • Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) • Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
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Annex 1: AMR Small molecules Delegate Booklet
Tackling AMR – A Cross Council Initiative - Theme 2
Workshop: Small molecule approaches to antibiotics – how can we develop, enhance and target?
Information for Workshop Delegates
th Tuesday 25 November 2014
The Grange Holborn, 50-56 Southampton Row, London WC1B 4AR
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Background Information
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), especially resistance to antibiotics, is a growing global problem. We are facing a rise in the number of bacteria becoming resistant to existing antibiotics without an increase in new antibiotics or new treatments. It is clear that an interdisciplinary approach is needed to tackle these challenges and make a step change in addressing antimicrobial resistance. The AMR Funders Forum has identified 4 key themes to target current and future investments. These themes will foster collaboration between diverse disciplines, share information across the public and private sectors, allow access to tools, compound libraries, datasets and screens to acquire new insights into the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria, the evolution of resistance and to drive the discovery of new diagnostic, preventative and therapeutic strategies for bacterial infections particularly antibiotic resistant strains.
The current focus of this initiative is on resistant bacteria of humans and animals a thematic approach:
Theme 1: Understanding resistant bacteria in context of the host,
Theme 2: Accelerating therapeutic and diagnostics development,
Theme 3: Understanding the real world interactions,
Theme 4: Behaviour within and beyond the health care setting.
This workshop falls under Theme 2: Accelerating therapeutic and diagnostics development. The Research Councils wish to bring together researchers from a range of scientific disciplines, from both academia and industry, to discuss the key challenges of AMR and to encourage networking around this topic. In addition, this information will feed into the call to be launched under Theme 2 of the AMR Cross Council Initiative in 2015.
The core aims of this Workshop are:
● To encourage networking of researchers across areas to forge strong multi-disciplinary research teams,
● To encourage partnerships between academia and industry to accelerate the exploitation of small molecule therapeutics,
● To provide an opportunity for consortia to start to come together resulting in the development of strong, innovative outline proposals,
● To provide an opportunity to have input into funding models, assisting the Research Councils to shape the call for Theme 2 of the AMR initiative.
For more information: http://www.mrc.ac.uk/research/initiatives/antimicrobial- resistance/tackling-amr-a-cross-council-initiative/
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Agenda
AMR Cross- Council Initiative Theme 2 Workshop:
‘Small molecule approaches to antibiotics – how can we develop, enhance and target?’
Tuesday 25th November 2014
09:30 Registration, Tea and Coffee
10:00 Introduction from the Chair, Dr Paul Brennan, Structural Genomics Consortium, Oxford
10:10 Dr Ghada Zoubiane, MRC - Tackling AMR, a Cross-Council initiative
10:20 Dr Jared Silverman, Cubist Pharmaceuticals
10:45 Dr John Ridden, Blueberry Therapeutics
11:10 Professor Tim McHugh, University College London
11:20 Dr Mark Graham, MG Toxicology Consulting
11:30 Professor Chris Schofield, University of Oxford
11:40 Dr James Mittra, University of Edinburgh
11.50 Breakout session 1
Translating small molecule discovery into the clinic: • Do we need more small molecule therapies? • What are the biggest challenges in this process? • How do we learn from failures of the past? • Who plays a role in this?
12:35 Networking Lunch
13:15 Feedback from Breakout session 1 discussions
13:45 Breakout session 2
Promoting interdisciplinary research: • What disciplines are needed? • How can we encourage interdisciplinary research?
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• How can we bring different experts together especially those from outside the AMR field? • In addition to expertise, what other resources are needed?
14:30 Feedback from Breakout session 2 discussions
15:00 Tea and Coffee
15:15 Dr Desmond Walsh, MRC
15:30 Group discussion on the topic of funding:
● What should the Funders support? • What should the funding model look like? • How flexible does the funding need to be? • How can we work with industry?
16:10 Summary of the day and next steps - Dr Paul Brennan and Dr Desmond Walsh
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Delegates
Elisabeth is the founder and Managing Director of Aquarius Population Health, a dynamic health research consultancy, with a focus on health economics. Their multidisciplinary team of experts generate evidence for the NHS, policy makers, academics, and the commercial sector to inform better healthcare decisions. They aim for their work to support meaningful and timely decisions for clients and collaborators, and more broadly for the health of the population. The Aquarius Population Health team are part of several grant-funded research collaborations, and have published in peer-reviewed journals (see www.aquariusph.com for more information). Dr Elisabeth Elisabeth studied Psychology as an undergraduate (University of Michigan, Adams BS Hons), and Epidemiology at Oxford University (MSc). She received her PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on the cost- Aquarius Population Health effectiveness of chlamydia screening in England, and her work has Elisabeth.adams@aquariu influenced international policy. She was a mathematical modeller and sph.com health economist for seven years at the Health Protection Agency researching sexual health and other infectious diseases. Elisabeth also holds an Honorary Researcher post at the University of Bristol.
Dr Sohail Ali is a molecular biologist with over 20 years’ experience gained working on a wide range of projects in academic, clinical and industrial laboratories. He has varied research interests include ligand–protein interacts and metabolic engineering. His previous research has included studies on protein structure-function relationships, inborn errors of human metabolism, and cancer and cell death. He was Head of Molecular Biology at PanTherix Ltd, a start-up micro-pharmaceutical using structure-based drug design to discover novel anti-bacterial agents. He has continued this interest at Plymouth Marine Laboratory by isolating marine bacteria and screening them for natural products for the development of small molecule anti-bacterial agents.
Additionally he oversees biotechnology research at PML and has worked on a range of commercially-orientated projects in the areas of algal biofuels Dr Sohail and biocatalysis with a range of industrial partners. He has advised the UK Ali Foreign and Commonwealth Office on issues of marine biotechnology as well as participating in national and international forums on marine Plymouth Marine biotechnology. Most recently he contributed to the BIS-sponsored report Laboratory “IB 2025: Maximising UK Opportunities from Industrial Biotechnology in a [email protected] Low Carbon Economy”. He is currently a lead investigator on a £4.2 million algal biofuels project part-funded by DEFRA, DECC, and the BBSRC focussed on strain engineering.
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Prof Baillie is an international expert on the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax and its illicit use as a bio-weapon. Following a decade spent working at Porton Down as the anthrax research group leader he moved to the US in 2002 where he established a
$15,000,000 Biodefense Medical Countermeasures Department for the U.S. Navy. The group focused on the development of rapid detection assays and therapeutics against a range of bio-threat agents. He returned to the UK in 2007 to join Cardiff University and currently leads in a number of anthrax and drug discovery projects funded by UK and US governments, the EU and NATO. His group has a particular interest in the isolation and identification of novel antimicrobial compounds from natural products of which Wales is a rich source. With funding from the EU, and support from the people of Wales we have developed a series of high throughput screening assays which we will employ to identify compounds with activity against antibiotic resistant bacteria. The two most advanced pipelines focus on Welsh honey and Welsh marine sponge. Professor We are also seeking compounds which enhance the activity of the current Les Baillie generation of antibiotics against resistant clinical isolates. In preliminary in vitro studies we have shown that aqueous extracts of Humulus lupulus Cardiff University when co-administered with certain antibiotics can increase the sensitivity [email protected] of clinical isolates of Mycobacteria abscesses. It is our intension to modify our high throughput antibiotic screening assays so that they are also able to detect potentially synergistic compounds. To help us exploit the utility of these platforms we are looking for collaborators who have access to raw materials and to antibiotic resistance bacteria. We are also looking for commercial investors to assist us in developing the next generation of antimicrobial compounds.
Professor Besra began his research career focussed on TB research under
the guidance of Professor Minnikin [1987-1990, Newcastle University]. He then undertook a period of Post-doctoral training under the direction of Professor Brennan [1990-1993, Colorado State University]. He returned to the UK in 1998 as a Reader at Newcastle University. In 2002, he moved to the University of Birmingham to the Bardrick Chair of Microbial Physiology and Chemistry within the School of Biosciences. Despite the existence of treatments for the disease, TB continues to present a major healthcare challenge, accounting for nearly nine million new infections and over one million deaths each year. The identification and exploitation of new Professor biological modes of action of hits and/or cellular targets are essential if we Gurdyal Besra are to tackle multi-drug resistant and extensively-drug resistant (MDR/XDR) strains of TB. Many of his innovations have stemmed from the University of Birmingham multi-disciplinary nature of his research, which has seen his development [email protected] and employment of novel experimental approaches to address the challenges of TB drug discovery, which lies at the interface of biochemistry, bacteriology, chemistry, immunology, microbiology and structural biology, with a clear chemical biology and medical-steer.
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Tom Blundell maintains an active laboratory as Director of Research and
Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, where he was previously Sir William Dunn Professor and Head of Department between 1996 and 2009, and Chair of School of Biological Sciences between 2003 and 2009. He has previously held teaching and research positions in the Universities of London, Sussex and Oxford. Tom continues to research on molecular and structural biology of growth factors, receptor activation, signal transduction and DNA repair, important in cancer, tuberculosis and familial diseases. He has also published many widely used software packages for protein modelling and design including Modeller (7150 citations) and Fugue (1150 citations), as well as computer programs to predict the effects of mutations on protein stability and interactions (SDM & mCSM). Recently his group has produced computer
programs (mCSM-lig) and databases (Platinum) to predict the effects of Professor mutations on small-molecule binding, relevant to antibiotic resistance. He Tom Blundell has published 540 research papers, including 30 in Nature. Tom has developed new approaches to structure-guided and fragment-based drug University of Cambridge discovery. In 1999 he co-founded Astex Therapeutics, an oncology [email protected] company that has eight drugs in clinical trials and that was sold in 2013 as Astex Pharma to Otsuka for $886 million. In parallel in the University of Cambridge he has developed structure-guided fragment-based approaches to drug discovery for difficult targets involving multiprotein systems and protein-protein interactions for the Met receptor and DNA double-strand break repair Rad51-Brca2 complexes, based on his basic research programmes. He has also been targeting ~10 Mycobacterium tuberculosis proteins as part of the Gates HIT-TB and EU-FP7 MM4TB consortia, including structural and biochemical studies of resistance mutations to first line drugs. Tom was a member of PM Margaret Thatcher’s Advisory Council on Science & Technology (1988-1990), founding CEO of Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, 1991-1996 (Chair from 2009), Chairman of Royal Commission on Environment (1998-2005), Deputy Chair of Institute of Cancer Research since 2008 and President of UK Science Council since 2011.
Paul Brennan received his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley under the mentorship of Paul Bartlett working on synthetic methodology for combinatorial chemistry and synthesizing inhibitors for new anti-bacterial targets. Following three years of post- doctoral research with Steve Ley in Cambridge University on the total synthesis of rapamycin, Paul returned to California to take a position at Amgen. His research was focussed on designing and synthesizing kinase inhibitors for oncology. After two years at Amgen, Paul accepted a position
as medicinal chemistry design lead at the world-renowned Pfizer labs in Dr Paul Brennan Sandwich, UK. Over the next six years Paul designed and synthesized (Chair) compounds for most major drug classes: GPCR’s, CNS-targets, ion- channels and metabolic enzymes. Following the closure of the Pfizer site in Structural Genomics Sandwich, Paul joined the Structural Genomics Consortium as the principal Consortium, Oxford investigator for medicinal chemistry to discover chemical probes for [email protected] epigenetic proteins. k
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I am a structural biologist working in the field of structure-based drug design. My ambition is to put my experience to use addressing one of the major emerging heath crises’ of the 21st century: antimicrobial resistance. I plan to use structure-based (including fragment-based) drug design to develop novel antimicrobials and an open-access model to distribute the results, which will accelerate the provision of new, cost-effective drugs to patients. I received my PhD from the University of Warwick in 2009, and
then accepted a position as postdoctoral researcher in the Growth Factor Signalling group of the Structural Genomics Consortium, University of Dr Peter Oxford. At the SGC I worked on the structural biology of various medically Canning relevant proteins until late 2013, when I left the SGC and moved to the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM), also at Oxford, to lead John Radcliffe Hospital a structure-based drug design project. [email protected]. uk
Greg Challis is Professor of Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick. His research interests focus on the Chemistry and Biology of bioactive natural products produced by microorganisms. His group has discovered several novel antibiotics from Streptomyces and Burkholderia species, including compounds with clinically-relevant activity against Acinetobacter baumannii and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. He is engaged in numerous collaborations, both within the UK (e.g. John Innes Centre, Cardiff University, Sanger Institute) and overseas (e.g. Institute of Microbiology, Beijing; University of Lorraine; McMaster University), focused on the discovery of novel Professor antibiotics. In addition to antibiotic discovery, his group works on Greg Challis elucidating the molecular mechanisms of antibiotic biosynthesis and applying the knowledge gained to produce novel antibiotic analogues with University of Warwick improved properties. [email protected]
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Anthony Coates is the Professor of Medical Microbiology at St George’s,
University of London. His research team has discovered a new way of making antibiotics called Antibiotic Resistance Breakers, and new potential drugs for diseases such as asthma. Both of these discoveries are now being developed by university spin-out companies. He was an MRC research training fellow under Prof Denny Mitchison (the world expert in combination TB chemotherapy) at the MRC TB Unit at the Hammersmith Hospital. During this fellowship he made the first set of monoclonal antibodies against TB. This led to the cloning and identification of TB heat shock proteins, which, in turn led to the discovery that these proteins can suppress asthma and arthritis. Currently, drug candidates identified in this work are in commercial development (Peptinnovate Ltd). Anthony Coates was Senior lecturer in Medical Microbiology at the London Hospital Medical School under Prof JD Williams who was an expert in Antimicrobial Resistance. In 1990 he was appointed Professor of Medical Microbiology at St
George's. With Dr Yanmin Hu, he discovered that dormant TB is metabolically active. This led to the invention of a new way of making Professor Anthony antibiotics and the discovery that some of these new compounds can Coates break resistance when combined with traditional antibiotics. This has been commercialised by another spinout company, Helperby Therapeutics Ltd St George's, which he founded in 2002 and continues as its CSO. This company has University of London reached Phase II clinical trials and has signed a partnership agreement [email protected] with a large Indian pharmaceutical company which aims to perform Phase III clinical trials with Helperby. Currently he is a partner in two EC grant-funded projects called Predict-TB and BacAttack. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers. Prof Coates is also involved in numerous studentships throughout UK, all of which address antibiotic resistance or antibiotic discovery, through academic or industrial collaborations.
In 2012, he founded Antibiotic Discovery-UK which is an over-arching network of individuals from academia and industry who are interested in promoting antibiotic discovery. Currently he is engaged in the globalisation of this network. In 2014, he co-founded Antibiotic Research-UK which is the first charity in the world to focus on antibiotic discovery and development.
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Mark Craighead is currently Head of Business Projects for Redx Anti- Infectives. Mark initially trained as a Cell Biologist receiving a PhD from UCL in 1993 before working in academia for a number of years in New York and Manchester. In 2001 Mark took up a position with Organon focussing upon the optimisation of compounds in the area of CNS disorders such as depression and anxiety and it was here that he first got involved in working with academic collaborators. In 2011 Mark moved to, the then, fledgling Redx to coordinate outsourcing. In his years with Redx Mark has had a number of roles, all of which have involved a degree of interaction with external collaborators both industrial and academic. Mark Dr Mark Craighead took up his current role (focussing upon Anti-Infective research) in January of this year and is based at the new BioHub located within the Redx Anti-Infectives Ltd Alderley Research Park. m.craighead@redxpharma. com
Dr Chris Creevey is a Reader in Rumen Systems Biology in Aberystwyth Univeristy with 15 years’ experience in computational biology, focused specifically in microbial genomes and evolution. He is a workpackage leader in the BBSRC Institute Strategic Programme Grant (BBSRC-ISPG) Rumen Systems Biology, where his group works on development and application of novel computational techniques to understand the rumen microbiome. Dr Creevey along with his colleague Dr Sharon Huws have previously identified novel antimicrobials from the rumen microbiota using a combination of functional metagenomics (fosmid library screening) and computational biology based approaches. These have been tested against an array of human pathogens with all so far having a broad range of Dr Chris Creevey antimicrobial action. Our interest in AMR is to bring together microbiology, bioinformatics, plant biology and immunology and apply cutting-edge Aberystwyth University approaches such as genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics, [email protected] lipidomics and synthetic biology and combine them with peptide synthesis and up-scaling capacity to identify, synthesise, test and market novel antimicrobials from anaerobic environments.
Prof. Changjiang Dong is a structural and microbial biologist who obtained
his Ph.D at University of St.Andrews in 2003 and was awarded a Wellcome Trust Career development fellowship in 2008. He moved to University of East Anglia in 2012 to take a professor position in molecular medicine. His research is focusing on infectious diseases and human immune responses. Particularly, his group is trying to understand the outer membrane
biogenesis of Gram-negative bacteria and drug resistance. Recently, his group published several papers in structural and functional studies of bacterial lipopolysaccharide transport proteins, including the structural and
functional studies of lipopolysaccharide translocon LptD/E in Nature. His
expertise is in structural biology, structure-based drug design, functional Professor assays and in vitro assays for drug discovery. Changjiang Dong
University of East Anglia [email protected]
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Professor Dowson has, for many years, examined the emergence and evolution of antibiotic resistance across a wide range of bacteria. His recent focus has been to better understand how penicillin targets bacteria. This began during his postdoctoral time at the University of Sussex, in the laboratory of Professor Spratt (1986-1990) and subsequently with his Lister Institute Centenary Fellowship (1991-1996). He currently holds a personal chair at Warwick University and is a member of the Medical Research Council Infections and Immunity Board. Chris’ research is highly collaborative, involving teams of biologists, chemists, engineers and physicists across universities in the UK, worldwide, and all importantly with industry, to help drive innovations from this research forward to a commercial outcome. The development of new reagents and new assays are crucial underpinning technologies enabling a multi-target focus to Professor Chris antibiotic discovery, with priorities in peptidoglycan biosynthesis (multi- Dowson targeting penicillin binding proteins and Mur ligases) and protein biosynthesis (multi-targeting tRNA synthetases). He is involved with University of Warwick Antibiotic Discovery UK (AD-UK) and has been involved with research [email protected] fundraising regionally across Warwickshire for the past 16 years with the Medical and Life Sciences Research Fund (MLSRF). He looks forward to bringing all of this experience to help develop activities within Antibiotic Research UK (ANTRUK).
Following a PhD and post doc in chemistry, David joined Pfizer, Sandwich in 1993 as a medicinal chemistry team leader. During his career at Pfizer, he headed-up chemistry sections working in a range of therapeutic areas including Anti-Virals and Cardiovascular. He has been directly involved in the identification of eleven development candidates from eight mechanistic classes, including four Phase 2 compounds and is co-author of over 40 publications and reviews and a named inventor on 16 patents. Since 2011, David has taken-up a part-time role with the RSC as Industry Associate where a major focus of his work is help to drive increased cross-sector and cross-discipline collaboration in pharmaceutical research. David has also set-up a consultancy company Vulpine Science and Learning and he is Visiting Professor at the Universities of Reading and Leeds.
Dr David Fox The Royal Society of Chemistry [email protected]
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Ganesan obtained a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry at the National University of
Singapore (1986) and a PhD in synthetic methodology and total synthesis under the supervision of Clayton Heathcock at the University of California- Berkeley (1992). He was then a postdoctoral research associate with Gregory Verdine at Harvard University (1992-93). In 1993, he joined the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Singapore as a Senior Research Chemist at the Centre for Natural Product Research and in 1996 became Principal Investigator of the Institute’s Medicinal and Combinatorial Chemistry group. In 1999 he joined the University of Southampton in the UK as a Reader in the Combinatorial Chemistry Centre for Excellence. In 2011 he became the Chair of Chemical Biology at the University of East Anglia’s School of Pharmacy, where he is currently Head of Medicinal Chemistry and Director of Research. Professor Ganesan is co-founder of the biotech company Karus Therapeutics and Arasu Ganesan Chair of the EU COST Action TD0905, 'Epigenetics: From Bench to Bedside'. He is Treasurer of the Royal Society of Chemistry's High Throughput University of East Chemistry and New Technologies subject group and a member of the Anglia IUPAC Subcommittee for Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Development. His [email protected] research centres around chemical biology, medicinal chemistry and organic synthesis with an emphasis on biologically active natural products and epigenetics.
Professor Ian Gilbert is Head of Chemistry in the Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) (http://www.drugdiscovery.dundee.ac.uk). This is a highly integrated unit, which encompasses all of the capabilities for early phase drug discovery. The DDU focuses on tackling unmet medical need through small molecule drug discovery. Ian is a medicinal chemist. He obtained a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Cambridge and then did post-doctoral research at Parke-Davis research and the University of Cambridge before starting an independent research career at Cardiff University, establishing a medicinal chemistry group. He moved to Dundee Professor in 2005. Ian’s interest in AMR is discovery of novel agents for treating Ian Gilbert drug resistant bacteria.
Drug Discovery Unit, Dundee [email protected]
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Dr Graham is from MG Toxicology Consulting. Mark has 27 years’ experience of Pharmaceutical Toxicology in both Discovery and Development and is currently an independent consultant. Within AstraZeneca, Mark was Global Leader of Discovery Toxicology and
had specific responsibilities for Drug Safety support for the Respiratory Dr Mark and Inflammation Research Area. Mark’s approach to toxicology is to Graham provide mechanistic data to facilitate translational risk assessment, in this regard Mark has a track record of achievement in problem-solving MG Toxicology toxicology. In parallel with working in the pharmaceutical industry, Mark has maintained an active research interest by collaboration with several Consulting Ltd Universities. Mark is a member of UK Government’s Committee on [email protected] Toxicity, in 2006 he was made a Visiting Professor at Surrey University, in 2008 he received a Fellowship of the British Toxicology Society and he is a member of the editorial board of the journal Xenobiotica.
Dr Haider was awarded a PhD in Biophysics at the Institute of Cancer Research in London in 2003. For his thesis, he was able to solve the first crystal structure of a four-stranded DNA with a drug. A brief postdoctoral fellowship with Prof Frances Ashcroft, FRS, at the University of Oxford, allowed him to specialize in construction of models for which no experimental structural data was available. He was able to establish, using molecular modelling, the structural basis of Permanent Neonatal Diabetes Mellitus (PNDM). For this work, he was invited to the prestigious Young Scientists for the next decade symposium by Roche Pharmaceuticals.In 2005, he was awarded the CRUK Senior Research Fellowship at the School of Pharmacy in London, where the focus of his research was small molecules ligand design of protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid inhibitors. In 2011, Dr Haider was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Drug Discovery at the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology (Queen’s Dr Shozeb University of Belfast). The focus of his group is to elucidate the relationship Haider between structure and function and how this can be exploited in drug discovery. At Queen’s University he was a co-recepient of a £3.8m grant University on Small molecule drug discovery Initiate by the Wellcome Trust – A College London first grant of its kind to be awarded to Northern Ireland. In 2013, Dr [email protected] Haider has taken up the position of an Excellence Fellow in Computational Medicinal Chemistry at University College London. The focus of his research is target validation and exploiting structural information for drug discovery.
I work for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) in the Biomedical Sciences Department, where I technically lead and project manage a number of projects within the Antimicrobials area of the Microbiology group. The aim of this area is to identify and evaluate compounds that have broad spectrum efficacy, both in vitro and in vivo. These range from novel compounds under development to commercial off the shelf products and are made available to us through collaboration with Dr Sarah academia and industry, both nationally and internationally. I am currently Harding working at MRC two days a week helping with Theme 2 of the Cross Council AMR initiative. MRC Sarah.Harding@headoffice. mrc.ac.uk Page 21 of 95
Claire Higlett is a Portfolio Manager within the Physical Sciences Theme at EPSRC.
(unable to attend Workshop)
Dr Claire Higlett
EPSRC
Rod Hubbard has been working with methods for analysis and exploitation of protein structure for over 30 years. In the 1980s, he developed molecular graphics and modelling methods and .in the 1990s he helped build the Structural Biology Lab at the University of York and determined the structure of many proteins of therapeutic importance, including
various kinases and the estrogen receptor. This was combined with studies of protein-ligand interactions and some of the early work in fragment and structure-based ligand discovery. Since 2001, he has spent varying amounts of his time with Vernalis, establishing and applying structure and fragment-based methods for drug discovery.
I am attending this meeting with two “hats” on. The first is representing the York Structural Biology Laboratory. This is a grouping of some 70 staff with expertise in determining the structure of proteins and relating this to mechanism and biological function. YSBL has a long tradition of collaboration with both academia and industry to translate these structural insights into understanding of biological processes or to exploit for therapeutic or commercial benefit. For AMR, Professor YSBL could determine structures to develop both a mechanistic Roderick Hubbard understanding but also to enable structure-based ligand discovery. The second is as Vernalis, where we have built an effective team of some Vernalis 65 staff with over 14 years of expertise and delivery in fragment and [email protected] structure-based drug discovery. Vernalis can bring its breadth and depth of expertise, facilities and methods in early stage drug discovery to assess and progress therapeutic intervention for targets.
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Dr Chloe Elizabeth James, Environment and Life Sciences, University of
Salford. I am a lecturer in medical microbiology with a strong background in bacteriology. I am particularly interested in pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria that exist in biofilms. I have worked on molecular aspects of pathogenicity, regulation and antibiotic resistance in a range of Gram-
negatives Interest in AMR: My work in the area of AMR has focused on: 1. Transport of antibiotics across the Gram-negative outer-membrane (Nat Rev Microbiol. 2008 (12) 893-903; Curr Drug Targets 2008 (9) 750-9; PLoS ONE. 2009 e5453. doi:10.1371; Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2007 51 (9) 3190-8). 2. The role of biofilm growth in resistance to antimicrobials (Curr Oral Health Rep 2014 (1) 59-69; JoVE 2012 64:e3857; Rev Anti Infective Therapy. (10) 219–235).
3. Assessing the antimicrobial activity of novel synthetic compounds. Dr Chloe I have recently formed new collaborations with biochemists synthesising James novel molecules with antimicrobial potential. Our goal is to identify and validate targets for novel antibacterial compounds and to produce novel University of Salford therapeutic agents that are active on strains that are difficult to treat with currently available antibiotics. [email protected] I have considerable expertise in bacteriology; antimicrobial susceptibility testing; mechanisms of antibiotic resistance; biofilms and bacterial gene regulation (21 publications H-index 15). Our team has the capacity to provide the tools and technologies needed for the synthesis and testing of novel compounds. We are keen to collaborate with others that could perform high throughput screening of lead compounds and further up-scaling of any promising candidates.
Ruth works for the MRC Infection and Immunity Board and the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) for AMR as the AMR Science Manager. http://www.jpiamr.eu/.
Ruth Kelly
MRC [email protected] .ac.uk
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Dr Katie Laird is a Senior Lecturer in Microbiology in the School of
Pharmacy, De Montfort University. She has a BSc (Hons) in Biology and obtained a PhD in applied microbiology in 2008 on The antimicrobial effects of orange, lemon and bergamot essential oils against Enterococcus sp. She is also a Chartered biologist, Fellow of the Higher Education academy and Faculty Deputy Head of Research Students. During her PhD she developed and patented an essential oil based antimicrobial vapour which she is currently commercialising, whilst her postdoctoral work included the assessment of natural antimicrobials efficacy against post- harvest pathogens. Her research is centred on the prevention of transmission of Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAIs) particularly the use of novel antimicrobials. Current research projects include C. difficile transmission on healthcare Dr Katie laundry, reducing the attachment of micro-organisms to textiles in the Laird healthcare arena, the use of metal nanoparticles against biofilms for targeted therapeutics and the development of biosynthesised chemicals De Montfort University based on natural product components for use in the pharmaceutical and [email protected] cosmetic industry. Other projects include the assessment of the lay public’s understanding of antibiotic resistance. Her research team includes 6 PhD students and a research associate in collaboration with industry.
Sarah Maddocks is a molecular microbiologist and studied for her BSc (Microbiology) at the University of Nottingham and her PhD (Microbiology) at Reading University. She spent several years researching as a post- doctoral assistant at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratories and the University of Bristol. Currently she lectures in microbiology at Cardiff Metropolitan University where she also undertakes research into host pathogen interactions during infections, including biofilm development, and the use of novel antimicrobials to perturb these processes. She is working with a collaborative team to develop nanoparticle based antimicrobials that can be incorporated into medical devices.
Dr Sarah Maddocks
Cardiff Metropolitan University [email protected]. uk
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Tony Maxwell is Head of the Department of Biological Chemistry at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK, and holds an Honorary Professorship at
the University of East Anglia, Norwich. He gained his first degree (B.Sc.) in Biochemistry from University College London before going on to do a Ph.D. on restriction enzyme enzymology at the University of Bristol with Steve Halford. This was followed by a postdoc with Marty Gellert (NIH, Bethesda, USA) on DNA gyrase, where he worked on structural and mechanistic aspects of this enzyme. In 1982 he moved back to the UK where he was awarded a ‘New Blood’ Lectureship at the University of Leicester, and stayed until 2000, becoming a Professor in 1997. During the period 1991-1997 he held a Lister-Jenner Research Fellowship. In 2000 he moved to the John Innes Centre, which is the largest research institute for plant and microbial sciences in Europe, to be Head of the
Biological Chemistry Department. His research interests centre around Professor DNA topoisomerases, focussing on their structure, mechanism and Anthony Maxwell interaction with antimicrobial agents. In recent years his research interests have become more heavily focussed on antibiotics and the John Innes Centre development of new antibacterial agents. In particular he is a member of two EU consortia: More Medicines for Tuberculosis and the IMI New Bugs [email protected] for Bad Bugs consortium ENABLE. In relation to this AMR initiative he is proposing two EoIs: Topoisomerase targets & Exploiting insect gut bacteria to discover novel plant-derived antibiotics.
My group has employed genetics, cell biology and biochemical
reconstitution to probe bacterial nucleic acid metabolism in E.coli over the last 18 years. Initial work demonstrated that the primary function of homologous recombination is to underpin DNA replication and revealed the importance of replication repair for bacterial viability (J. Mol. Biol. 270, 212)(Cell 101, 35)(Mol. Cell 9, 241)(Nucleic Acids Res. 32, 6378). More
recent work has demonstrated that proteins bound to DNA, especially those associated with transcription, are the primary source of barriers to DNA replication inside bacterial cells (Nucleic Acids Res. 34, 5194)(PNAS 110, 7252). We have also shown that specific DNA helicases which remove these protein barriers are essential for bacterial viability (Mol. Cell 36, 654)(Nucleic Acids Res. 39, 949). Current work is revealing that partial inhibition of translation in bacteria can ameliorate inhibition of DNA replication, indicating the complex interplay between different aspects of nucleic acid metabolism and suggesting potential problems in combination therapy. The only commonly used antibiotics that target DNA replication do so indirectly by inhibiting topoisomerases. My group have advanced biochemical tools to analyse DNA replication in bacteria. We can Professor reconstitute in vitro both the entire DNA replication machinery (>14 Peter McGlynn different proteins) and also individual reactions catalysed by enzymes found within the replisome. In collaboration with Rod Hubbard, we intend University of York to screen small molecules that target DNA replication directly, providing [email protected] leads for development of potentially novel antibiotics. Our work on replication, transcription and translation is revealing the importance of coordinating these processes for successful genome duplication and cell viability. We have demonstrated that a key signalling molecule in the bacterial stress response, (p)ppGpp, is critical in this coordination. (p)ppGpp is also emerging as a key factor enabling bacterial persistence, a major problem confronting effective treatment of bacterial infection. We are developing advanced genetic tools in E. coli based on our (p)ppGpp expertise to provide new leads in the search for anti-persistence strategies. Page 25 of 95
Professor Tim McHugh is Director of the UCL Centre for Clinical Microbiology, located at the Royal Free Hospital in north London. The UCL group contributes to all stages of the TB drug development pathway with projects on evaluation of new compounds as well as supporting the
laboratory aspects of clinical trials. An underlying theme is the Professor development of biomarkers of treatment outcome, whether transcriptomic Tim McHugh analysis of in vitro treatments or the more complex picture of monitoring outcome in patients. An important element of our work is capacity University development, we provide training for laboratory scientists both on site and College in London. Tim is Academic Lead for Continuing Professional Development London in the UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences and in this role he is championing the use of online education to reach our global communities; [email protected] these tools are fundamental to the idea of knowledge sharing across our collaborations.
Paul gained a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Reading in 2003 working under the supervision of Dr Helen Osborn. Following Post- doctoral studies at Oxford University, with Dr Jeremy Robertson, he began his medicinal chemistry career in 2005. Since then Paul has worked on numerous medicinal chemistry programs, gaining experience across a range of biological targets, from HTS through to pre-clinical candidate selection. In 2014 Paul joined Discuva, a company focused on the discovery of new small molecule antibiotics against drug resistant
pathogens. Discuva’s proprietary SATIN technology provides an “engine” for identifying novel classes of antibiotic drugs with vastly improved Dr Paul selectivity and resistance profiles versus competitor candidates. Discuva’s Meo drug discovery capabilities brings together a multidisciplinary team comprised of geneticists, molecular biologists, assay biologists, bio- Discuva Ltd informaticians and medicinal chemists to deliver novel treatments towards [email protected] bacterial infection.
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Dr Mittra is a Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Innogen
Institute. As an interdisciplinary social scientist, his research explores the ways in which the life sciences are affecting the nature and process of technological and therapeutic innovation within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. Previous work on mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances amongst large pharmaceutical firms led to growing interest in the area of translational medicine/research, in the context of both the changing relationship between basic and clinical research, and the emergence of new business models, value systems and regulatory developments that are crucial for the successful translation of new therapeutic discoveries into clinically beneficial products. More recently, James and his Innogen colleagues been involved in a short ESRC-funded project to explore regulation and innovation interactions in the Dr James development of antimicrobial drugs and diagnostics. James has published Mittra widely on issues of strategic management and governance of the life sciences, as well as mapping new value systems and business models for University of Edinburgh novel therapies and new approaches to drug development, such as [email protected] stratified and regenerative medicine. He has recently co-edited a book with Christopher Paul-Milne (Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development) on 'Translational Medicine: The Future of Therapy?’ and is currently completing a monograph on the New Health Bioeconomy.
Mark Moloney was appointed as a University Lecturer in the Department of
Chemistry and as EP Abrahams’ Tutorial Fellow in Chemistry (St Peter’s College) at Oxford University in 1990, and is currently Professor of Chemistry. His research interests have been the synthesis of functionalised, saturated enantiopure nitrogen heterocycles of biological relevance with an emphasis on antibacterials, anticancer agents and neuroexcitatory agents; the development of new synthetic methodology using main group metal-mediated reactions; and the development of direct chemical methods for the surface functionalisation of synthetic and natural polymers. A current focus is the development of structurally novel antibacterial agents, using natural products as lead structures, an
approach which has proved to be highly successful, allowing the rapid Professor identification and elaboration of novel active entities. Although he has Mark Moloney enjoyed substantial RC support, much of this work has also been funded by industry. He was selected as a finalist in the 2006 EPSRC Business Plan University of Oxford Competition his technology has formed the basis of a spin-out company Oxford Advanced Surfaces Group plc. This work has resulted in the [email protected] publication of 180 papers in the primary, monograph and review c.uk literature, and numerous national and international lectures and posters at academic, industrial and conference locations.
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My research has three major themes which have a direct or indirect
bearing on AMR. Molecular biology mobile genetic of elements. My work has focused mainly on conjugative transposons, highly promiscuous gene transfer elements that are important in the spread of antibiotic resistance. We are investigating the mechanism of transfer of these elements at the molecular level. We are also developing these elements as tools for the genetic manipulation of different bacteria. I have also been working on phage biology with the aim of developing suitable phage for therapy. Genetics of Clostridium difficile We are using conjugative transposons to develop methods for the genetic analysis of this important pathogen and investigating the role of these elements in the spread of virulence factors in C. difficile. Professor Metagenomics We are using functional metagenomics to screen gene Peter Mullany libraries for new antimicrobials. Interest in AMR I am interested in AMR from the point of view of the University genetic basis of how resistance genes transfer and understanding how this College London process may be slowed or stopped. Together with my colleague, Elaine [email protected] Allan, I am interested in developing genetic techniques to identify specific targets for new therapy by understanding the gene expression patterns in antibiotic resistant bacteria during infection of the host.
Dr Alex O’Neill is an Associate Professor in Microbiology within the Faculty of Biological Sciences at the University of Leeds. He has published >65 papers on the molecular mechanisms of antibiotic action and resistance and currently heads a research group of 15 that has a dedicated focus on these topics. He and his laboratory have particular expertise in the discovery and biological characterization of novel antibacterial agents, including elucidation of antibacterial mode of action.
(unable to attend Workshop) Associate Professor Alex O'Neill University of Leeds [email protected]
Dr. Ridden (Chief Executive Officer Blueberry theraputics) has almost 20 years of experience in both large and small BioPharma progressing a number of projects through preclinical research to candidate drug nomination. Following a DPhil in Clinical Biochemistry at Oxford John went on to complete a Postdoctoral position in Peter Parker's lab at the Institute Dr John for Cancer Research working on identifying and characterising a new class Ridden of kinases involved in cancer. John then worked for a small biotech company working in oncology and dermatology therapy areas and from Blueberry Therapeutics here moved to Pfizer for 7 years where he led a number of drug discovery john.ridden@blueberryther projects in Cardiovascular and Tissue Repair research apeutics.com areas. Subsequently he moved to AstraZeneca where he worked for 11 years at a senior leadership level in target identification and translational research supporting Oncology, Respiratory and Inflammation, and Cardiovascular research areas.
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Pierre Rizkallah is a Senior Lecturer in Structural Biology, School of
Medicine, Cardiff University Education: BSc Chemistry, Lebanese University II, Beirut, 1979 Ph D Chemistry, Nottingham University, 1984 Career: PDRA, Leeds University 1984-1987; Liverpool University, 1987-1990 Higher Scientific Officer, Food Research Institute, AFRC Reading, 1990 Higher/Senior Scientific Officer, SRS Daresbury Laboratory, 1990-2008 Senior Lecturer in Structural Biology, Cardiff University 2008 – Present Profile: SRS: Facility Manager, Protein Crystallography; Contract research for commercial companies; Public outreach; International Advisory role at SESAME, the ‘Synchrotron for Peace in the Middle East’ Liverpool PDRA: Diffraction studies of very small crystals
Leeds PDRA: Structural studies of E. coli glutamate dehydrogenase using Dr Pierre protein crystallography Rizkallah PhD: Research in Organic Semiconductors using crystallography and electrical measurements Cardiff University Research Interest: [email protected] - Carbohydrate recognition by plant lectins - Bio-colouration and camouflage in lobster - Human immune system proteins - Inflammation factor inhibition - Biotechnological manipulation of jelly fish Green Fluorescent Protein
Dr David Rooke
Director ProTEM Services [email protected]
David Roper is a former MRC career Development fellow and Reader in
Structural Biology at the University Warwick. The Roper group uses structural biology techniques, principally X-ray structural determination, in combination with molecular biology and biochemical approaches, to investigate the molecular and mechanistic basis of microbial physiology in relation to antibiotic resistance and bacterial cell wall (peptidoglycan)
biosynthesis in Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens. In addition his research group also uses a synthetic and translational biology Dr David approaches to obtain and reengineer pathway intermediates as chemical Roper probes, substrates and inhibitors. This approach not only allows novel
insight to the biology underpinning these pathways but also enables University of Warwick biotechnological exploration and exploitation. [email protected]
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Sian is currently a Strategy and Policy Officer in the Agriculture and Food Security team and is responsible for BBSRC strategy and activities in microbiology (including antimicrobial resistance, food-borne zoonosis, and TSEs) and post-harvest food waste. Sian represents BBSRC on the Antimicrobial Resistance Funders Forum.
Sian Rowland
BBSRC [email protected]
Chris Schofield studied for a first degree in chemistry at the University of
Manchester (1979-1982). In 1982 he moved to Oxford to study for a DPhil with Professor Jack Baldwin on the synthesis and biosynthesis of antibiotics. In 1985 he became a Departmental Demonstrator in the Dyson Perrins Laboratory, Oxford University followed by his appointment as Lecturer in Chemistry and Fellow of Hertford College in 1990. In 1998 he became Professor of Chemistry, and in 2011 was appointed Head of Organic Chemistry. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Royal Society. His research group works at the interface of chemistry, biology and medicine. His work has opened up new fields in antibiotic Professor Chris research, oxygen sensing and gene regulation. His work has identified new Schofield opportunities for medicinal intervention that are being pursued by numerous academic and commercial laboratories. He has a long standing University of Oxford interest in beta-lactam antibiotics, their targets, and mechanisms of Christopher.schofield@che resistance to them. Metallo beta-lactamases are a current focus of interest in his group. m.ox.ac.uk
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Dr. Silverman is Vice President, Discovery Biology at Cubist Pharmaceuticals. Cubist is focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel therapies for acute, hospital based use, with a particular emphasis on new antibiotics for the treatment of drug resistant infections. His background includes undergraduate, graduate and post- graduate training in molecular biology, molecular genetics, microbiology and parasitology. Dr. Silverman received a Ph. D. in Microbiology from Harvard Medical School and completed postdoctoral training at Yale University before joining Cubist as a bench scientist in 1997. Dr. Silverman currently leads group of 30+ scientists, encompassing a wide range of disciplines (biochemistry, molecular biology, microbiology, cell Dr Jared biology, electrophysiology and pharmacology), involved in all aspects of Silverman antibiotic and acute pain discovery and development, from target identification to clinical trial data analysis. In his time at Cubist he has Cubist contributed to the discovery of three novel antibiotics that have entered Pharmaceuticals clinical development, including serving as the biology lead for the [email protected] discovery of Surotomycin, currently in Phase 3 trials for treatment of C. m difficile. In addition, he and his collaborators have pursued studies into the mechanism of action of the lipopeptide antibiotic daptomycin and the mechanisms of resistance to this clinically important antibiotic. Dr. Silverman serves on the editorial board for Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and as a member of the NIH Drug Discovery and Resistance Study Section.
The “Bristol Polyketides Group” comprises Profs Tom Simpson, Matt Crump,
Christine Willis (School of Chemistry) and Dr Paul Race (Biochemistry); Prof Chris Thomas and Dr Peter Winn (Biosciences, U. of Birmingham); Prof Russell Cox (Microbiological Chemistry, U. of Hannover, Germany) and Professor Rob Lavigne (Division of Gene Technology, U. of Leuven, Belgium). They constitute a multidisciplinary team of natural products chemists, structural biologists, molecular geneticists, computational biologists, enzymologists and protein chemists. The Bristol- based investigators are core members of the recently established BrisSynBio, a BBSRC/EPSRC funded Synthetic Biology Research Centre (Co-Director, Dr Paul Race) whose focus is to be on world-class fundamental science leading to transformative solutions to meet global challenges in healthcare, food security, and industrial biotechnology. We Professor have collaborated for more than a dozen years on studying antibiotic Tom Simpson biosynthetic pathways leading to the development of new hybrid antibiotic molecules by pathway engineering. for combatting antimicrobial University of Bristol resistance. Tom Simpson graduated from Edinburgh in 1969, and gained [email protected] his Ph.D. from the University of Bristol in 1973. After postdoctoral work in k Liverpool and the Australian National University he was appointed to a Lectureship in Chemistry in Edinburgh in 1978. In 1988 he moved to Professorships in Organic Chemistry in Leicester in 1988, and Bristol University in 1990. His research which covers all aspects of the chemistry and biosynthesis of microbial natural products has led to ca. 230 papers. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001 and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2006. He has received several RSC Awards, notably the Corday-Morgan Medal, Tilden, Simonsen and Hugo Müller Lectureships; and The Natural Product, and Rita and John Cornforth Awards.
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Ishwar Singh is a Senior Lecturer in Biological Chemistry at the School of Pharmacy, University of Lincoln. Prior to Lincoln, he had held many prestigious fellowships such as the Alexander von Humboldt fellowship, Germany; and Senior Research Fellowship, DANIDA, Denmark and CSIR, India. He is an organic chemist. He has developed bioconjugations for DNA, RNA and polymer modifications in water. He is currently leading research in Biologics delivery, Peptides, Sequence selective DNA cross linking, Nanoparticles modifications for drug delivery and diagnostic applications and broad spectrum antibiotics. Research Interest relevant to AMR: Novel antimicrobials based on rational design against clinically important resistant Gram negative such as K. pneumoniae 700603, A. Baumannii 19606, P. aeruginosa 28753. Non Dr Ishwar toxic drug delivery strategies for antimicrobials, chemistry tools for spatial Singh surface modifications for diagnostic and preventive applications.
University of Lincoln [email protected] k
Jim Spencer is a Senior Lecturer in Microbiology in the School of Cellular
and Molecular Medicine at the University of Bristol. He is a protein biochemist and structural biologist with an interest in antibiotic resistance mechanisms dating back to postdoctoral study at the National Institute of Medical Research (Mill Hill). A particular focus has been resistance mechanisms found in opportunist Gram-negative bacterial pathogens such as Enterobacteriaceae (e.g. E. coli) and non-fermenting species (e.g. Pseudomonas aeruginosa). A major interest is beta-lactamase mediated resistance to carbapenems, the current first choice treatment for infections by these species in humans, but this is underpinned by a broader interest in beta-lactam resistance which encompasses enzymes from environmental as well as clinical sources. We are also studying
resistance to antibiotics that inhibit bacterial protein synthesis, via a Dr Jim mechanism originally identified in livestock but that is now disseminating Spencer in both human and animal pathogens. Our work spans mechanistic enzymology (both experimental and, through collaboration, computational University of Bristol approaches), structural biology and microbiology. An increasing focus is [email protected] the application of basic understanding of resistance mechanisms to drive potential new therapeutic approaches. As such we collaborate with a number of synthetic chemistry groups in an effort to develop novel small molecule inhibitors of resistance mechanisms. Work in my laboratory is presently supported by the MRC (UK-Canada Team grant); US NIH (R01 in collaboration with Bonomo (Cleveland) and Vila (Argentina)) and the BBSRC.
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Prof. Eriko Takano has been working in both industrial and academic antibiotic research for 26 years. After working as an industrial researcher in Japan, she moved to the John Innes Center, Norwich, UK, where she obtained her PhD in microbiology from the University of East Anglia in 1993. After faculty positions at the University of Tübingen (Germany) and the University of Groningen (The Netherlands), she became Professor of Synthetic Biology at the University of Manchester, Faculty of Life Sciences, Manchester Institute of Biotechnology in September 2012. Since 2014 she is Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology Research Theme Director of the
Faculty and one of the three directors of SYNBIOCHEM, the Synthetic Biology Research Centre at the University of Manchester. Prof. Takano has Professor been working in the field of antibiotics research throughout her academic Eriko Takano and industrial career, and has wide knowledge and expertise in the regulatory control of antibiotic production and its application to achieve University of Manchester higher yield in production strains. Currently, her group is focussing on the eriko.takano@manchester. use of synthetic biology for the large-scale genome-based re-engineering ac.uk of antibiotic production, awakening “sleeping” antibiotic biosynthesis gene clusters discovered in newly sequenced microbial genomes. Using and redesigning the enzymes and microbes found in nature she aims at expanding the chemical diversity available in antimicrobials, and increase the biotechnological efficiency of their production, while avoiding the negative environmental impact of classical organic chemistry at the industrial scale. Her work is funded by major grants from basic and applied funding bodies (five-year grant volume £6M) and is supported by close collaborations with clinicians and industrial partners in the pharmaceutical industry.
Edward Taylor is a Reader in Molecular / Structural Biology at the School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln. Prior this he held a position as a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Lincoln and York. He has interests in the Structural and Functional Analysis of a Medically Important Bacteriophage as well as the characterisation of Carbohydrate active enzymes particularly those involved in bacterial cell wall modification. Research Interests relevant to AMR relates to target validation (gene knockouts), the structural and mechanistic determination of phage lysins, auto-lysins and other bacterial cell wall modulating enzymes with a view Dr Edward to a rational inhibitor design approach. He works closely with Dr Ishwar Taylor Singh testing and developing novel antimicrobials targeted against clinically important resistant Gram negative bacteria such as Klebsiella University of Lincoln pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa [email protected]
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I am the Head of Infections and Immunity at the Medical Research Council and I lead on our antimicrobial resistance strategy. I also chair the UK
antimicrobial resistance funders forum and represent the UK on the EU Joint Programming Initiative in Antimicrobial Resistance. I have worked in a number of areas at the MRC including establishing our Stratified Medicine
consortia, developing academic/industry research collaborations and
Dr working with international funders in infectious disease. Desmond Walsh MRC Desmond.Walsh@headoffic e.mrc.ac.uk
My research is in Mathematical and Systems Biology, particularly in
modelling cell-cell interactions, pharmacology, cancer, computational cell biology and infectious diseases. I use a range of computational and mathematical techniques ranging from individual based models, correlation equations, stochastic moment closure systems to ordinary and partial differential equations and numerical analysis. I obtained my doctorate in Mathematics from Heriot-Watt University in 2000, then did postdoctoral work in Mathematics departments at Minnesota (2000-2001), Loughborough (2001-2004), Nottingham (2004-2005) and in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield
(2005-2007), before taking up a John Anderson Research Lectureship in Mathematical Biology and Medicine at the University of Strathclyde in Dr Steven 2007. I moved to the University of Liverpool to take up a lectureship in Webb Systems Pharmacology in the Centre for Drug Safety Science in Oct 2012.
University of Liverpool Interest in AMR: [email protected] PK-PD modelling of AMR; Mathematical/computer modelling of within-host bacterial infections. .uk
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Dr. Andrew D. Westwell is currently Reader in Medicinal Chemistry at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Cardiff University (UK), having worked in Cardiff since 2006. He received his BSc (Hons) in Chemistry and PhD in organic chemistry at the University of Leeds (UK). Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Loughborough University (UK), he joined a Cancer Research UK Programme at the University of Nottingham (UK), initially as Senior Research Fellow, later as Lecturer. Following his move to Cardiff he has established a number of collaborative research projects focusing on breast cancer drug discovery, new synthetic chemistry methods, and cancer imaging by Positron Emission Tomography (PET). He has recently been a joint scientific founder of Tiziana Life Sciences (www.tizianalifesciences.com), taking research and IP generated Dr Andrew at Cardiff University into a commercial setting, culminating in the launch Westwell of a London AIM-listed company progressing a new anti-metastatic drug candidate through pre-clinical evaluation. Cardiff University Application of nearly 20 years of drug design and discovery experience to [email protected] the urgent healthcare priority represented by AMR is a current priority area of activity. He has published more than 100 journal articles and reviews. Technology transfer activities have included a number of patent filings, and he was previously lead chemist in Nottingham on the development of a new molecule from discovery at the bench to early clinical evaluation in cancer. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of Future Medicinal Chemistry.
Ramesh Wigneshweraraj is a Professor of Microbiology and Wellcome Trust Investigator at the MRC Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection at Imperial College. His laboratory investigates the mechanisms that underpin the activity of bacterial RNA synthesis machinery, the RNA polymerase, and virulence gene expression and stress adaptation in bacterial pathogens at molecular, structural and genome-wide levels. A major line of research in Prof Wigneshweraraj's laboratory is the development of truly novel antibacterial lead compounds based on phage- inspired strategies to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria, which he Professor Ramesh collaboratively pursues with Domainex Ltd. Wigneshweraraj Imperial College [email protected]
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Barrie Wilkinson is a chemist with 25 years of experience working on
aspects of Streptomyces enzymology, natural products chemistry and genetics (chemical biology). At JIC his group work on problems that promise to further enhance our understanding of microbial natural product biosynthetic pathways and to develop new tools and methods to aid their rational bioengineering, in particular anti-infective peptides and polyketides. Through collaboration with others on the Norwich Research Park he is developing an antibacterial discovery pipeline using recent advances in genomics to identify new antibacterial compounds from actinobacteria isolated from underexploited environmental niches and extreme environments. His group also studies novel pleiotropic regulators of virulence in gram-negative bacteria and ligands which inhibit them from natural sources.
He was previously the VP of Research at Biotica Technology Ltd, a UK Professor Barrie biotechnology company exploiting polyketide natural products derived Wilkinson from Streptomyces and allied actinomycetes as leads for pharmaceutical R&D. He was most recently responsible for discovering and developing the John Innes Centre candidate drug BC556 (NVP018) to Investigational New Drug (IND) [email protected] enabling studies for viral hepatitis which was recently purchased by NeuroVive Pharmaceutical AB. The team led by BW made significant contributions to the development of biosynthetic medicinal chemistry tools while reducing this discipline to a repeatable, scalable process. BW is an author of >70 peer reviewed publications and an inventor on 23 patents and patent applications. He co-founded Isomerase Therapeutics Ltd, a new company with a focus on developing natural products as potential therapeutics targeted at peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerases, and of Delos Pharmaceuticals Inc., a joint venture with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, California with a mission to discover and develop novel natural product-based therapies to treat chronic disease by targeting common pathways that are affected in aging and diseases of aging.
MRC Headoffice Programme Manager for the Infections and Immunity Board. Ghada has been at the UK Medical Research Council since 2008 leading on different areas of research including Ageing, Public Health Partnerships and more recently Infections, in particular antimicrobial resistance.
Dr Ghada Zoubiane MRC ghada.zoubiane@headoffic e.mrc.ac.uk
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Contact Details
If you have any questions about this initiative please contact: Ghada Zoubiane (MRC) [email protected]
Members of the Cross- Council Initiative:
• Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC)- http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Pages/Home.aspx • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)- http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/home/home.aspx • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)- http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/ • Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)- http://www.esrc.ac.uk/ • Medical Research Council (MRC)- http://www.mrc.ac.uk/ • Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)- http://www.nerc.ac.uk/ • Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)- http://www.stfc.ac.uk/home.aspx
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Annex 2: AMR Alternatives Delegate Booklet
Tackling AMR – A Cross Council Initiative - Theme 2
Workshop: Alternative Approaches for the Treatment of Bacterial Infections
Information for Workshop Delegates
Thursday 27th November 2014
Kingsway Hall Hotel, 66 Great Queen Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2B 5BX
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Background Information
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), especially resistance to antibiotics, is a growing global problem. We are facing a rise in the number of bacteria becoming resistant to existing antibiotics without an increase in new antibiotics or new treatments. It is clear that an interdisciplinary approach is needed to tackle these challenges and make a step change in addressing antimicrobial resistance. The AMR Funders Forum has identified 4 key themes to target current and future investments. These themes will foster collaboration between diverse disciplines, share information across the public and private sectors, allow access to tools, compound libraries, datasets and screens to acquire new insights into the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria, the evolution of resistance and to drive the discovery of new diagnostic, preventative and therapeutic strategies for bacterial infections particularly antibiotic resistant strains.
The current focus of this initiative is on resistant bacteria of humans and animals.
A thematic approach:
Theme 1: Understanding resistant bacteria in context of the host,
Theme 2: Accelerating therapeutic and diagnostics development,
Theme 3: Understanding the real world interactions,
Theme 4: Behaviour within and beyond the health care setting.
This workshop falls under Theme 2: Accelerating therapeutic and diagnostics development. The Research Councils wish to bring together researchers from a range of scientific disciplines, from both academia and industry, to discuss the key challenges of AMR and to encourage networking around this topic. In addition, this information will feed into the call to be launched under Theme 2 of the AMR Cross Council Initiative in 2015.
The core aims of this Workshop are:
● To encourage networking of researchers across areas to forge strong multi-disciplinary research teams,
● To encourage partnerships between academia and industry to accelerate the exploitation of small molecule therapeutics,
● To provide an opportunity for consortia to start to come together resulting in the development of strong, innovative outline proposals,
● To provide an opportunity to have input into funding models, assisting the Research Councils to shape the call for Theme 2 of the AMR initiative.
For more information: http://www.mrc.ac.uk/research/initiatives/antimicrobial-resistance/tackling-amr-a- cross-council-initiative/ Page 39 of 95
Agenda
‘Alternative Approaches for the Treatment of Bacterial Infections’
Thursday 27th November 2014 Kingsway Hall Hotel- 66 Great Queen Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2B 5BX
Agenda
09:30 Registration, Tea and Coffee
10:00 Introduction from the Chair, Professor Paul Moss, University of Birmingham
10:10 Dr Desmond Walsh, MRC - Tackling AMR, a Cross-Council Initiative
10:20 Professor Peter Dobson, University of Oxford
10:45 Professor Simon Foster, University of Sheffield
10:55 Professor Peter Taylor, University College London
11:05 Professor Ken Smith, University of Cambridge
11:15 Dr Adam Wilkinson, Phico Therapeutics
11.25 Breakout session 1
Translating novel therapies into the clinic:
• What alternative therapies do we need? • What are the biggest challenges in this process? • How do we learn from failures of the past? • Who plays a role in this?
12:10 Networking Lunch
13:00 Feedback from Breakout session 1 discussions
13:35 Breakout session 2
Promoting interdisciplinary research:
• What disciplines are needed? • How can we encourage interdisciplinary research?
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• How can we bring different experts together especially those from outside the AMR field? • In addition to expertise, what other resources are needed?
14:20 Feedback from Breakout session 2 discussions
14:55 Tea and Coffee
15:10 Dr Desmond Walsh, MRC
15:25 Group discussion on the topic of funding:
• What should the Funders support? • What should the funding model look like? • How flexible does the funding need to be? • How can we work with industry?
16:10 Summary of the day and next steps - Professor Paul Moss and Dr Desmond Walsh
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Delegates
Morgan Alexander is Professor of Biomedical Surfaces at the School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham and a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award holder and a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator. He received his Bachelor of Science in Materials in 1988 and his PhD from the same department at The University of Sheffield in 1992.
He is a member of the Laboratory of Biophysics and Surface Analysis (LBSA) which consists of 11 independent academics with complementary expertise in solving fundamental and Professor Morgan applied biomolecular, biomaterial and (bio) formulation Alexander problems.
University of Nottingham His work involves developing materials for application in morgan.alexander@nottingha biological environments and characterising relationships between m.ac.uk the surface and biological response. Understanding these relationships is critical in the development of biomaterials and it is the theme running through his group's work across a variety of biomedical application areas spanning bacterial adhesion to controlling stem cell response. This work is funded by major awards from the Wellcome Trust and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Professor Brian Angus Prof Brian Angus is the Director of the Oxford Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine. He joined the Nuffield Department of Clinical John Radcliffe Hospital Medicine in 1993 and originally worked in Thailand and Ghana [email protected] studying pharmacokinetics in severe malaria and melioidosis. His research focus is now on clinical trials in influenza, HIV, Chronic (Unable to attend the Fatigue Syndrome, C. difficile-Associated Diarrhoea and typhoid. Workshop) He is Clinical Tutor in Medicine and Associate Professor and Reader in Infectious Diseases at the University of Oxford. He holds an honorary Senior Clinical Scientist title at the MRC CTU.
Naomi is in the Health and Human behaviours team at the Economic and Social Research Council and leads much of their activity relating to AMR.
Naomi Beaumont
ESRC [email protected]
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Our research in the Photodynamic / Sonodynamic Therapy (PDT/ SDT) area seeks to improve the solubility and increase the tissue penetration depth of conventional photosensitising (PS) drugs through attachment to micro / nano- particles. We have shown that covalent attachment of the Rose Bengal or PPIX sensitisers to a hydrophilic Quantum Dots increases the solubility of the sensitiser drug significantly. In addition we have shown that it is possible to indirectly excite the sensitiser using two photon irradiation at 800 nm. Given the tissue penetration of 800 nm light is over four times greater than 565 nm light (where the Professor John Callan sensitiser absorbs) the tissue penetration capability of these conjugates are significantly better than conventional PS drugs University of Ulster alone. [email protected] In SDT, sensitiser drugs are activated by ultrasound (US) as (Unable to attend the opposed to light in PDT. US has a significantly better tissue Workshop) penetration capability than light therefore potentially permitting access to deeper seated tumours. We have shown that covalently attaching a Rose Bengal sensitiser drug to a lipid microbubble, results in significantly greater ROS generation relative to the sensitiser drug alone. Furthermore, it is possible to selectively destruct the microbubble at the target site using a focused ultrasonic pulse allowing targeted delivery of the sensitiser drug.
In the area of AMR, our current approach is to utilise the above techniques to enable the more effective treatment deep seated infection. The advantages of this approach are (i) that the bactericidal mechanisms of APDT/ASDT are equally effective against a wide range of multi-antibiotic resistant and sensitive strains of human pathogens (ii) resistance to APDT/ASDT has not been demonstrated and the mechanisms involved make it much more difficult for bacteria to develop resistance.
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I lead the UCL Applied Biomedical Engineering Group, based in Division of Medicine. The group is affiliated to the Research Department of Metabolism and Experimental Therapeutics and forms part of the Centre for Cardiovascular Biology and Medicine. My research interests are centered on the application of biomedical engineering to provide healthcare solutions for debilitating conditions, which contribute to the UCL Grand Challenge of Human Wellbeing. To enable this, we have cross- Dr Richard Day disciplinary research collaborations with other UCL groups in the Faculties of Engineering, Life Sciences, Mathematical & Physical University College London Sciences, and Medical Sciences, as well as clinical and surgical [email protected] collaborations at the affiliated University College London Hospital. The group works closely with the UCL Translational Research Office and UCL Business to facilitate clinical translation and commercialization of our exciting and innovative technology. For more information visit our website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/day-lab
After careers at Imperial College and Philips Research laboratories he was appointed to a University Lectureship and College Fellowship at the Queen’s College Oxford in 1988 and a Professorship in 1996. There he conducted research on nanoparticles, nanostructures, optoelectronics and biosensors. In 1999 he spun-off a company, now called Oxonica,that specialized in making nanoparticles for a wide range of applications, ranging from sunscreens to fuel additive catalysts and bio-labels. In 2000, with colleagues in Chemistry and Engineering, he spun-off Oxford Biosensors Ltd that made a hand-held device based on enzyme-functionalized microelectrode arrays. His latest company, Oxford NanoSystems was formed in 2012. Between 2002 and 2013 he built up the Begbroke Science Park to accommodate 24 start-up companies and created new laboratories for University research groups. He Professor Peter Dobson has published over 180 papers and 30 patents covering a wide range of subjects. He was (2009-2013) the Strategic Advisor on Warwick Manufacturing Nanotechnology to the Research Councils in the UK and sits on Group and The Queen’s several EPSRC panels and committees. He was awarded the OBE College, Oxford in 2013 in recognition of his contributions to science and [email protected] engineering. He is currently a Principal Fellow at Warwick Manufacturing Group, Warwick University UK. Peter delivers courses at Graduate level in the areas of biosensors, nanotechnology, innovation, entrepreneurship and related topics at four universities. He is also actively pursuing the setting up of more new companies and advising several others. Peter has a long-standing interest in the applications of nanotechnology to control and destroy microbes.
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I am an Infectious Diseases clinician scientist and trained in Ireland and the US. I work at the University of Sheffield, where I am Professor of Infectious Diseases. I am co-director of the Florey Institute for Host pathogen Interactions a new initiative which has bought together a multidisciplinary team of Biologists, Clinicians and other disciplines to develop novel approaches to combatting Gram-positive infections. My own research has focused on the innate immune response to infection in the lung using tissue culture, murine models and experimental medicine approaches in healthy volunteers and specific patient groups and aims to develop novel host-based strategies to combat Professor David Dockrell antimicrobial resistance.
University of Sheffield [email protected]
Over the last decade I have been interested in the in vivo function of host defence peptides (particularly defensins) and their relevance to therapy for antibiotic disease. I represent a collaborative international group focused on the induction of host defence peptides (HDP) as a strategy to combat the lack of novel therapeutics for multi-resistant bacteria. Each group has expertise and renown in their complementary areas of interest.
Prof. Julia Dorin: University of Edinburgh, using mouse models with gene knockouts of β-defensins, we have revealed essential, Professor Julia Dorin novel functions for these HDP including immunomodulation. The lab is experienced in infection of the respiratory tract and University of Edinburgh molecular biology techniques. [email protected] The group is open to additional partners with relevant expertise.
Heather founded Phico Therapeutics in 2000 to develop a new class of antibacterial. Heather has raised £15.6 million to date from a mix of 140+ shareholders, the Wellcome Trust and a TSB grant, which is funding a development pipeline of three products focused on treating hospital infections caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria. Prior to starting her scientific career, Heather gained several years’ experience working in marketing/sales in a variety of
Dr Heather Fairhead industries. Heather is a regular lecturer at the University of Cambridge and Imperial College. Phico Therapeutics [email protected]
(Unable to attend the Workshop)
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Established Product and Process Development as a microbiological consultancy specialising in antimicrobial product formulation and other areas of chemical formulation and application in 1972. This consultancy continues to the present day. I have spun off companies from the work of the consultancy and in parallel worked with many client companies over the last 43 years. One example being Hotties Thermal packs Ltd, established in 1996 which makes therapeutic heat and backcare products. I remain owner and MD of this company. Since 2005 I have worked as R&D director of Gama Healthcare Dr Adrian Fellows ltd and have developed the company’s range of infection control products, which are now significant products within the NHS and GAMA Healthcare Ltd are sold in 40 export markets. In this context I have developed a [email protected] keen interest in all aspects of infection control including the issues raised by increasing antibiotic resistance. In conjunction with Dr Richard Day of UCL we are working on nanoplatform delivery of oxidative biocides and precursors for same in the physiological milieu with the aim of reaching and destroying infecting organisms,(including antibiotic resistant) without collateral patient damage, in a variety of clinical conditions.
The Foster group has worked for over 20 years on the drug resistant pathogen S. aureus and a range of other organisms. The research spans from fundamental aspects of bacterial growth and division, through host pathogen interaction using a variety of animal models to vaccine development utilizing novel antigens.
Professor Simon Foster
University of Sheffield [email protected]
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Professor Gillespie was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and the Queen’s University Belfast where he graduated in Medicine. He trained in Internal Medicine and Clinical Microbiology at the Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast before being appointed as the Mercers’ Lecturer in Clinical Tropical Medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
After field research in Kenya and Tanzania Professor Gillespie was appointed as Senior Lecturer in Clinical Microbiology at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and subsequently Professor after its merger with University College London. Professor Stephen Professor Gillespie has worked clinically as a Consultant Clinical Gillespie Microbiologist leading the department until 2005. He was then appointed as Regional Microbiologist for London where he led the University of St Andrews London laboratory response to the 2009 influenza pandemic. In [email protected] 2010 he was appointed as the Foundation Sir James Black Chair of Medicine at the University of St Andrews.
He is currently the Chief Investigator of the recently completed REMoxTB trial that investigated two treatment-shortening regimens. He is also the coordinating investigator of the TB Alliance STAND trial starting in November 2014. Professor Gillespie is also one of the three Chief Investigators for the PanACEA consortium that is the main European-African clinical trials network.
Professor Gillespie was the first to determine the differing fitness deficits associated with the spectrum of rifampicin resistant M. tuberculosis. Using these methods he determined the resistance development pathway for later generation flouroquinoloes by S. pneumoniae. His research group has developed novel methods to study antibiotic resistance in “dormant” populations of mycobacteria and S. pneumoniae.
Fraser has been at GSK for 25 years working in a number of different roles across the drug discovery and development spectrum. Initially he worked in clinical development where he led teams on projects in HIV, HBV and HCV resulting in submission and approval of multiple anti-viral products (RetrovirTM, EpivirTM, WellferonTM). Fraser then led the virology discovery team in Stevenage where the primary focus was target validation and identification of novel agents to treat HCV as well as ongoing clinical support for the anti-viral products in HIV and Dr Fraser Gray HBV. Over the last 7 years, Fraser has been working in business development in infectious diseases and been involved in early GSK discovery deals in both anti-viral and anti-bacterials. His role has [email protected] expanded to include the neglected disease portfolio where the focus is on public private partnerships against malaria, tuberculosis and kinetoplastid diseases. Fraser obtained his PhD in microbiology from Edinburgh University.
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Lindsay Hall qualified with a BSc (Hons) in Microbiology from the University of Glasgow in 2003. She went on to study for a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute under the supervision of Prof Gordon Dougan. In 2007 Lindsay took up a postdoctoral position at the Alimentary Pharambiotic Centre, University College Cork in Ireland. She returned to the UK in October 2011 to take up a lecturing and Principle Investigator position within the Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia (UEA). With her move to Norwich, Lindsay also took up a Research Leader position at the Institute of Food Research. In 2013 Lindsay was awarded a 5 year Dr Lindsay J Hall Wellcome Trust New Investigator Award. Most recently (August 2014), Lindsay was promoted to senior lecturer in University of East Anglia gastrointestinal sciences. [email protected] The Hall lab’s research focus involves defining the complex interactions of the host with the intestinal microbiota and pathogens at mucosal surfaces. More specifically the group is focussed on how the dominant early life microbiota genus Bifidobacterium interacts with the host, including how they modulate critical infection resistance. The Hall lab utilises multi-disciplinary approaches including; microbiology (in vitro model-colon chemostat systems, molecular microbiology), metabolomics (NMR, MS; in collaboration with Prof. R Field, John Innes Centre), next generation sequencing (RNASeq, 16s rRNA, WGS, both host and microbe), bioinformatics tools, in vivo models (germ-free and infection models) and human studies (preterm/term infants). Our approach to AMR is through exploitation of our own microbiota, where we are mining novel anti-microbial products produced from recently isolated bifidobacterial strains/species.
I work for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) in the Biomedical Sciences Department, where I technically lead and project manage a number of projects within the Antimicrobials area of the Microbiology group. The aim of this area is to identify and evaluate compounds that have broad spectrum efficacy, both in vitro and in vivo. These range from novel compounds under development to commercial off the shelf products and are made available to us through collaboration with academia and industry, both nationally and internationally. I am Dr Sarah Harding currently working at MRC two days a week helping with Theme 2 of the Cross Council AMR initiative. MRC [email protected] rc.ac.uk
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Dr David Houston is a postdoctoral research associate in the Cardiff School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences with a specialization in antimicrobial formulation and drug discovery at Cardiff University. His research interests include wound healing and the delivery of antimicrobials to chronic wounds, antimicrobial polyphenols and the delivery of drugs through skin and mucosal membranes.
Dr Dave Houston
Cardiff University [email protected]
I am the research coordinator of the group of Prof. Lee Cronin at the University of Glasgow. I took up this position in 2010 after a PhD at the University of Geneva (2003-2007) with Prof. J. R. Nitschke in coordination chemistry; a post-doctoral position at the University of Oxford (2008-2009) with Prof. H. L. Anderson on conjugated oligomers’ synthesis and characterisation; and a post-doctoral position at the Eindhoven University of Technology (2009-2010) with Prof. E. W. Meijer on the study of a thermoplastic elastomer with applications in kidney dialysis.
I will be attending the workshop on behalf of Prof. L. Cronin. The Dr Marie Hutin Cronin group is a large and multidisciplinary group using concepts from chemistry, physics, electronics, biology and IT in University of Glasgow projects ranging from synthetic biology to electronic devices’ [email protected] fabrication. The ultimate aim is to understand the origin of life from evolved complex chemical systems and to create new forms of life. One of the main research stream of the group lies in the use of robotic systems in order to optimise chemicals outputs using feedback control. One of our interests is to use this technology to evolve / optimise peptides targeting antibacterial activity. Bacteria being one of the first form of life on Earth, we believe that studying the evolution of their resistance / activity when using peptides evolved in a controlled way (based on the bacteria’s activity) could ultimately not only decipher some of their evolution mechanisms or trends but also give some hint as to the origin of life.
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After a PhD in Particle Physics (1999), AJ he worked on the computational design of proteins, using molecular modelling techniques (ULB, ULP and Harvard U.). Afterwards, after moving as Assistant Professor to the Ecole Polytechnique (France) in 2003, he developed computational design methods for metabolic networks, transcriptional networks, and particularly RNA networks. In 2009, after moving to CNRS-Genopole (France) as senior researcher, he started his experimental microbiology lab where he could validate experimentally his computational methodologies. He then developed and used automated Professor Alfonso microscopy and microfluidics chips for single-cell validations. In Jaramillo 2013, he moved to the University of Warwick as Professor of Synthetic Biology, where he is now developing new cell-culture University of Warwick bioreactors for bacteriophage directed evolution, which he [email protected] applies to engineer the first methodology to produce synthetic .uk bacteriophage cocktails. He has coordinated and coordinates several Synthetic Biology international consortia and he is member of the editorial boards of ACS Synthetic Biology and the J. of Biol. Engineering. He is looking for partners and collaborators in industry and academia interested in participating in a consortium focused in bacteriophage therapy and Synthetic Biology. Website: http://synth-bio.org
Toby Jenkins is associate professor of Biophysical Chemistry at the University of Bath. His research interests are focussed on the interface of materials chemistry with microbiology, most particularly surfaces which can control bacterial growth, surfaces which sense bacterial virulence factors and systems which respond to bacterial virulence factors giving fluorescent / colour change. In addition we have interests in discovering new antimicrobial compounds, particularly from bacteria themselves and viruses – bacteriophage which predate on bacteria. We are working with clinicians and industry on developing next generation wound dressings which can both detect infection at Associate Professor Toby early stages and, via a trigger, release bacteriophage. Research Jenkins in the group is inherently inter-disciplinary with all group members trained in both materials chemistry and microbiological University of Bath methods. [email protected]
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Aras Kadioglu was born in Cambridge in 1968, but grew up in Liverpool, Washington DC and Istanbul before returning to the UK to read for his BSc in Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Leicester. Upon obtaining his PhD in 1996 on the role of CD4 T cells in mucosal inflammation, he started his first postdoctoral position at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital London, before moving back to the University of Leicester to start working on host immune responses to pneumococcal colonisation and invasive disease. He was promoted to Lecturer in Respiratory Infection in 2005, then Reader in 2009 (both at the University of Leicester), before returning back to his childhood home of Liverpool as Professor of Bacterial Pathogenesis in October 2011.
Prof. Kadioglu’s primary research interests are in pathogenesis of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes and Professor Aras Kadioglu Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and the interplay between bacterial virulence and innate/adaptive immunity. He has developed University of Liverpool clinically relevant mouse models of acute and chronic respiratory [email protected] and systemic infection to elucidate mechanistic understanding of the disease processes involved. As part of this effort, he has also (Unable to attend the developed research interests in novel anti-bacterial therapeutics Workshop) and new protein based vaccines. His work on novel alternatives for treating bacterial infection include;
• Liposome bacterial toxin sequestration therapy • Clinically relevant in vivo disease models, which can be used for pre-clinical testing of drug dosing strategies coupled to monitoring for resistance development and elucidation of the factors which may drive AMR • Immuno-regulation of bacterial infection • P4 immunotherapy for treatment of severe respiratory infections and sepsis • Phage therapy against Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections
I work for the MRC Infection and Immunity Board and the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) for AMR as the AMR Science Manager. http://www.jpiamr.eu/.
Ruth Kelly
MRC [email protected] c.uk
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Dr Laverty was appointed Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the School of Pharmacy Queen’s University Belfast in October 2012. His research focuses on the production and characterisation of innovative antimicrobial peptides for use against resistant biofilm forms of pathogenic infection. Despite being an early career academic, he has a multitude of peer- reviewed publications and international conference presentations to his name. Dr Laverty has a particular interest in the design of ultrashort peptide variants (less than 7 amino acids in length). Dr Laverty also specialises in peptide and peptidomimetic Dr Garry Laverty (peptide-like) self-assembly for biomaterial and drug delivery purposes. The main focus of Dr Laverty’s current work is Queen’s University Belfast producing antimicrobial nanomaterials which respond pathogenic [email protected] stimuli (e.g. enzymes, pH) for the prevention of biomaterial and medical device related infection. Last year he spent a successful research placement with the world-leading nanomaterials group of Prof Bing Xu (School of Chemistry, Brandeis University, Waltham, USA), leading to the publication of a collaborative research paper in the high impact journal “Biomacromolecules” in September 2014 (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/bm500981y). This paper focuses on the use of ultrashort self-assembling peptide gels against resistant biofilm forms of hospital superbugs. Dr Laverty also experience of working closely with the Pharmaceutical Industry. In his previous role with the Irish Biotechnology company Ward Biotech Ltd, he was responsible for the creation and development of innovative veterinary products, including the antimicrobial-patented product DentiQ™ released in 2014. He was awarded the Intertrade Ireland FUSION project exemplar award for work on the product in 2012.
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David Livermore gained his BSc in 1978 and his PhD in 1983. He worked at the London Hospital Medical College from 1980 until 1997, when he joined the Health Protection Agency (now Public Health England), becoming Director of its Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring and Reference Laboratory in 1998. In October 2011, he became Professor of Medical Microbiology at UEA, but with 30% of this time supplied back to Public Health England as its Lead on Antibiotic Resistance. Professor David Livermore Prof Livermore has broad interests on the evolution and University of East Anglia dissemination of antibiotic resistance and its relationship to [email protected] antibiotic prescribing. Beta-Lactamases are a particular interest, with recent work on the proliferation of ‘CTX-M’ extended- spectrum enzymes and carbapenemases, particularly NDM-1, which received extensive media coverage in 2010.
He sits on the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy working parties on resistance surveillance, multi-resistant pathogens and susceptibility testing and its Antibiotic Action advisory board, also on the Society for General Microbiology working group on sexually transmitted infections. He is also a member of the UK Government’s Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infections Advisory Committee and has contributed extensively to the Chief Medical Offer for England’s Annual Report for 2011. He publishes and speaks widely on resistance and has edited for several journals including Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and Journal of Medical Microbiologyand, currently, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents.
I am molecular microbiologist with expertise in cystic fibrosis microbiology and have worked on the epidemiology, pathogenesis and antimicrobial resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cepacia complex bacteria. I have used genomic approaches to study these bacteria in relation to infection and their ecology in natural and man-made settings. These resistant Gram negative species are also major industrial contaminants and I have studied their antimicrobial resistance to preservatives and disinfectants. In addition to these interests in Gram negative antimicrobial resistance, I am also developing a research program to exploit Professor Eshwar Burkholderia bacteria as a novel source of antibiotics. Multiple Mahenthiralingam lead Burkholderia polyketide antibiotics have been discovered with promising activity against multidrug resistant Cardiff University pathogens. My current research involves the discovery of novel [email protected] antibiotic biosynthesis pathways using a genome mining c.uk approach and the biochemical characterisation of novel Burkholderia antibiotics in collaboration with Julian Parkhill at the Sanger Institute and Greg Challis at the University of Warwick.
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Portfolio Manager – Healthcare Technologies
Dr Vicky Marlow
EPSRC [email protected]
Dr. Matthews completed a BSc(Hons) and PhD in Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde (1985 and 1989). He has worked on a diverse number of R&D projects within academia and industry over the last 20-30 years in the fields of polymer science, biomaterials and pharmaceutics. In the last 15-years, he has had an ongoing interest in the controlled delivery of topical therapeutic agents to exuding wounds and filed a patent for a lyophilised delivery system (Pfizer) in 2003. This original work has developed to include the localised delivery of a selection of common broad-spectrum antimicrobials to both Gram-negative and Gram- positive bacteria, quantifying the Dr Kerr Matthews release rate and efficacy of the common antimicrobials in a planktonic environment. He has authored and co-authored over Robert Gordon University 30 original research papers in all areas of interest and has an [email protected] ongoing and successful collaboration with microbiology colleagues at Robert Gordon University where he has been gainfully employed for the last 10 years.
Michael McArthur is a Molecular Microbiologist with over 15 years experience of academic and biotechnology research: filing 15 patents and raising $30 M in private and grant funding. His defining scientific interest is how the control of bacterial genes can be used to create new antibacterials. Michael gained his PhD from University of Cambridge and has held academic positions in the EU (Cambridge, John Innes Centre, ICMB in Crete) and University of Washington, Seattle. Whilst there his technologies were used to found a diagnostics company, Regulome Inc, for whom he served as Director of Research. Recently he was appointed the Professor of Professor Michael Nanomedicine at the School of Medicine, UEA. McArthur Currently Prof. McArthur is the CSO (and co-founder) of Procarta University of East Biosystems (www.procartabio.com). The company is developing Anglia/Procarta Biosystems an extensive pipeline of nanoparticulate oligonucleotide [email protected] antibacterials able to treat both Gram-positive and Gram- negative bacterial pathogens. The company is preparing for several of its programmes to enter clinical trials.
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Andy Merritt is Associate Director, Chemistry at the MRC Technology’s Centre for Therapeutics Discovery (CTD). Collaborating with academics, the CTD prosecutes innovative drug discovery programmes; diversity, targeted and in silico generated screening approaches are all used to identify medicinal chemistry leads for further optimisation. Recent projects have included targeting bacterial cell wall synthesis and novel targets implicated in tuberculosis latency.
Before 2009 Andy was a Director of Discovery Medicinal Chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline, responsible for early lead Dr Andy Merritt discovery from screening campaigns, for outsource support for lead discovery chemistry and supply of tool compounds for MRC Technology Centre for target validation. Prior to 2001, as part of the GlaxoWellcome Therapeutic Discovery organisation he led interdisciplinary teams focusing on the [email protected] development of new chemical technologies for lead discovery and optimisation. Andy joined the former Glaxo organization as a senior medicinal chemist in 1988 following postdoctoral studies in the USA.
Andy currently sits on the editorial board of Chemistry World and the RSC chemical biology division executive, and regularly lectures on drug discovery at UK universities.
My main research interest lies in the formation of adhesion platforms on mammalian cells, driven by tetraspanin adaptor proteins. These adhesion platforms normally support the attachment of leucocytes to epithelial cells but can be hijacked by bacteria and other pathogens. This assists the colonisation of epithelial niches despite mechanical clearance by cilia, mucus etc, and also allows the entry of pathogens into cells and across epithelial barriers. Disruption of the tetraspanin platforms decreases bacterial adhesion across a range of organisms (Gram positive and negative) and enormously increases the sensitivity of MRSA to β-lactam antibiotics. We envisage tetraspanins as Dr Peter Monk targets for antibiotic-sparing strategies.
University of Sheffield [email protected]
Paul Moss is Professor of Haematology and Head of the School of Cancer Sciences at the University of Birmingham. He is Chair of the Infections and Immunity Board at the Medical Research Council where he also serves as a member of the Strategy Board. He was previously Chair of the Clinical and Translational Research Committee at Cancer Research UK. Professor Moss’s research programme is within the immunology of human disease and he runs several innovative clinical trials in viral, cancer and transplant immunology.
Professor Paul Moss (Chair)
University of Birmingham [email protected] Page 55 of 95
Sean Nair is a Reader and Head of the Department of Microbial Diseases at UCL. His research is focussed on: (i) The interactions of bacteria with host cells in health and disease where his primary focus is on the healthcare associated pathogens. (ii) Most bacteria in their natural environment exist as biofilms which are highly resistant to antimicrobial agents. I am interested in the structure, physiology and molecular basis of Dr Sean Nair biofilm formation and antimicrobial resistance and in the development of strategies for preventing biofilm-associated University College London diseases. [email protected] (ii) The development of novel antimicrobial strategies to combat infections. These strategies currently include the use of antisense and aptamer technologies, development of new light- activated antimicrobial agents and the identification of bacterial genes coding for potential novel therapeutic targets.
Interest in the AMR: At UCL and UCL Hospital we have a team of bacteriologists, chemists, physicists and clinicians working on the development of light activated antimicrobial agents for the treatment of infections and for use in self disinfecting surfaces. We would like to take forward the development of antimicrobial surface coatings and antimicrobial agents and nanoparticles that are activated by electromagnetic radiation or ultrasound.
I am a Research Leader at the Institute of Food Research (IFR) in Norwich leading a group working on the biocontrol of gut pathogens. My research interests are in the application of gut commensal bacteria for exclusion and inhibition of pathogens and in elucidation of the role of gut bacteria in the health and disease of humans and animals. We are using molecular profiling methods, metabolomics and colon model systems to understand the complex interactions between gut microbiota and the host. Clinical studies on the relationship between gut microbiota and Dr Arjan Narbad specific GI tract disorders of IBS and Ulcerative Colitis are in progress in collaboration with gastroenterologists from the Institute of Food Research neighbouring University Hospital. With regards to AMR, my [email protected] research is also focused on the development of novel strategies including competitive exclusion, phage endolysins and heterologous expression of lantibiotics for the control of pathogens including C. perfringens, C. difficile and Campylobacter.
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Prof. Vesselin Paunov has more than 23 years of research experience in colloids science, advanced materials and bionanotechology. He received a PhD in Physical Chemistry in 1997 from the University of Sofia, specialized at the Universities of Patras (Greece) in Erlangen (Germany) in Hull (UK) and Delaware (USA). He joined the University of Hull as a lecturer in 2000 and was promoted to Professor in Physical Chemistry and Advanced Materials in 2013. He is internationally recognized for his research in nanoscience and bio-nanomaterials. His present research interests include colloid science of foams, emulsions, formulation science, anisotropic materials based on nanoparticles, smart surfaces, microencapsulation, stimulus Professor Vesselin Paunov triggered release of actives, directed cell assembly, functionalization of cells with nanoparticles and polymers, whole University of Hull cell biosensors for testing toxicity and nanotoxicity. His major [email protected] research interest is in using synthetic colloids as antimicrobials Prof. Paunov is looking forward to form a larger network and a consortium including clinical microbiologists in order to test his colloid antibodies technology on antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria in both laboratory and clinical environment. He is also looking for collaborators for exploring the nano-formulated antimicrobials for developing effective strategies for combating antimicrobial resistance.
Dr Tim Planche is a HEFCE funded Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Infection and Immunity with an interest in healthcare associated infections and antimicrobial resistance. He is a clinical microbiologist working at St. George’s Hospital in London and is currently the head of the Department of Medical Microbiology.
Dr Planche completed his doctoral research on severe malaria but since has worked on bacterial healthcare associated infections, particularly C. difficile and has completed a study on Dr Tim Planche C. difficile diagnostics and has on-going research interests in C. difficile and other healthcare associated infections. St George’s University of London Clinically, Dr. Planche leads a large microbiology department [email protected] with 7 consultants and a laboratory processing over 600,000 specimens per year and over 70 staff. In addition, with the rest of the consultant staff, he gives clinical advice across the hospital, manages over 20 patients on outpatient intravenous antibiotics and infection control and antibiotic policy at St. George’s. Working at the coalface of infection control and the management of infection helps greatly with designing and implementing translational research embedded in the NHS with easy translation into practice.
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Prof. Frances Platt obtained her PhD from the University of Bath, UK, and was a post-doctoral fellow at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, USA. She was a Lister Institute Senior Research Fellow and is currently Professor of Biochemistry and Pharmacology at the University of Oxford. Her main research interests include the biology and pathobiology of glycosphingolipids. Her research led to the development of miglustat for the treatment of glycosphingolipid storage diseases. Prof. Platt was awarded the Alan Gordon Memorial Professor Frances Platt Award and the Horst Bickel Award for advances in metabolic disease therapy. She was elected a fellow of the Academy of University of Oxford Medical Sciences in 2011. [email protected]
Dr. Polina Prokopovich is a Lecturer at School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and completed her degree in Chemistry (Hons) in 2002 from St. Petersburg State University and PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2006 from Loughborough University. Before being appointed by Cardiff University (from 2011) she has worked on a number of projects sponsored by 3M and Astra Zeneca. Dr. Prokopovich's research is dedicated to the development of novel bio- and nano- medical functional materials with added antimicrobial properties. She has been working on the development of novel antimicrobial materials (and their chemical and material characterisation) for biomedical Dr Polina Prokopovich applications for the past 9 years. She is a Visiting Academic Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA from Cardiff University January 2013, a Visiting Lecturer at University of Ljubljana, [email protected] Slovenia from November 2013, member of the reviewers grant panel for ORUK funder from 2014; appointment as an External PhD examiner at Swansea University and Loughborough University, UK, from 2014; member of the management committee of the COST Action 1005 from 2014; member of the EU Peer Review College from 2013; member of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (eCOST) in 2012 and member of the International Advisory Committee of the 20th International Symposium on Surfactants in Solution (Portugal, June 2014). She is a Chartered Engineer, a Member of Society of Biology, Member of Society of Applied Microbiology and a Fellow of Higher Education Academy.
Professor James Raftery James Raftery is a health economist and Professor of health technology assessment at the University of Southampton. He University of Southampton was until 2012 director of the UK National Institute for Health [email protected] Research Evaluation Trials and Studies Cooordinating Centre, which manages four research programmes. His academic group provides health economics input mainly to clinical trials. Research interests include the costs and benefits of clinical trials, overdiagnosis and overtreatment, as well as the political economy of healthcare. He has written widely on health economic matters particularly relating to NICE, including a NICE blog on the BMJ website.
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Dr Khondaker Miraz Rahman (KMR) is a Lecturer in Medicinal Chemistry in the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science (IPS). After initially working in the industry for 3 years, he obtained his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the UCL School of Pharmacy. He joined the CRUK PPI Drug Discovery Group as a Research Fellow in July 2009 and worked as the Team Leader of Gene Targeting Drug Design Research group of UCL SOP from December 2009 to February 2012. He moved to King’s College London in Dr Miraz Rahman January 2012 as a senior research fellow and was appointed as a Lecturer in Medicinal Chemistry at King’s College in May 2012. King’s College London KMR’s research activities are focused on the application of [email protected] synthetic medicinal chemistry and chemical biology techniques to the design, synthesis and evaluation of novel drug-like chemical scaffolds as anticancer and anti-infective agents, along with studies to understand their molecular and cellular mechanisms of action. KMR’s research group is based in a well- established medicinal chemistry research facility in the Britannia House. KMR has more than 10 years research experience in medicinal chemistry and lead optimization in anti-cancer and anti-infective area, particularly in developing novel drug—like chemical scaffolds. His research in the drug discovery area has generated significant intellectual property and were the subject of five patent applications. He has experience in both early drug discovery and late translational research, and also in commercialising laboratory research. He co-founded the biotech company Transcriptogen Limited in 2013.
Lalita Ramakrishnan has established the zebrafish as a model for TB pathogenesis. This model takes advantage of the genetic tractability and optical transparency of the zebrafish and has enabled discoveries about TB immunopathogenesis that lend themselves to host-targeting approaches to TB treatment. Two findings from the zebrafish are already being tested in the clinic. This work has instigated a broader approach to host- targeting therapies taking into consideration both innate and adaptive immune interactions. Lalita moved recently to the University of Cambridge where she is a Professor of Immunology Professor Lalita and Infectious Diseases. She is a Wellcome Trust Principal Ramakrishnan Research Fellow.
University of Cambridge [email protected]
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Steve Rannard, D.Phil, FRSC holds a personal Chair in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Liverpool, UK. He is also the academic lead for Nanomedicine within the newly developed Materials Innovation Factory at Liverpool and the Director of the Liverpool Radiomaterials Laboratory. Professor Rannard spent 16 years in UK industry (Cookson,Courtaulds, Unilever) before joining Liverpool in 2007. He has co-founded three start-up companies (IOTA NanoSolutions Ltd, Hydra Polymers Ltd and Tandem Nano Ltd). Whilst in industry, he was the first recipient of the joint RSC/Macro Group UK Young Researcher of the Year Medal (1998), RSC Industrial Lecturer at Professor Steve Rannard both Strathclyde University (2001) and the University of Sussex (2002), visiting Lecturer at the University of Sussex (1999- University of Liverpool 2001), visiting Professor at the University of Liverpool (2003- [email protected] 2007) and was awarded a Royal Society Industry Fellowship (2005). He has >60 original research publications and is co- inventor of >55 published patent families (with >100 national granted filings). Prof Rannard is a co-founder and the vice-Chair of the British Society for Nanomedicine. Steve has been working for many years on forming solid drug nanoparticles (nanoparticles made directly from poorly soluble drugs) and through collaborations with Professor Andrew Owen at Liverpool, materials have been optimised for the oral treatment of HIV; with scale-up under cGMP conditions and human trials planned in early 2015.
Sian is currently a Strategy and Policy Officer in the Agriculture and Food Security team and is responsible for BBSRC strategy and activities in microbiology (including antimicrobial resistance, food-borne zoonosis, and TSEs) and post-harvest food waste. Sian represents BBSRC on the Antimicrobial Resistance Funders Forum.
Sian Rowland
BBSRC [email protected]
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Alastair Sloan (BSc, PhD) is Professor of Bone Biology and Tissue Engineering in the School of Dentistry and in the Cardiff Institute for Tissue Engineering and Repair (CITER) at Cardiff University. He is currently the Vice-Dean for International and Engagement and Head of the Tissue Engineering Research Theme at the School of Dentistry. From 2011-2014 he was chair of the CITER Research Committee.
Professor Sloan’s research is focussed on the regeneration of mineralised tissues and the behaviour and therapeutic use of dental pulp stem cells. His group’s research focuses on bacterial invasion and attachment in pulpitis and novel delivery Professor Alastair Sloan mechanisms for antimicrobial agents to support vital pulp therapy. IN addition he is interested in targeted antimicrobial Cardiff University drug delivery for orthopaedic implant infections and failures. His [email protected] other interests are in the cellular and molecular responses of stem cells to natural dentin and bone biomatrices and compromised biological environments to understand their functional behaviour during tissue injury. He is funded by the NC3Rs, Welsh Government, MRC, EPSRC, Dr Hadwen Trust and Dunhill Medical Research Trust.
Ken Smith is Professor of Medicine and Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge. Ken trained in nephrology and clinical immunology with an interest in autoimmune disease in Melbourne. His PhD at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute examined aspects of B cell immunology. He established the Cambridge Immunology Strategic Research Network, directs the FoCIS Cambridge International Centre of Excellence, and led a recent successful bid for funding to Professor Ken Smith establish the Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease, to open in 2017. In 2006 he was elected University of Cambridge a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and in 2007 was [email protected] awarded the Lister Institute Research Prize.
His laboratory studies basic immunological mechanisms, and how defects in regulatory control of the immune system can lead to autoimmunity and alter defence against infection. It also runs a translational programme in autoimmune disease (particularly SLE, vasculitis and IBD) and has led to the discovery of a prognosis-predicting biomarker entering clinical trials, and the identification of new pathways driving disease outcomes in autoimmunity and infection. These findings have led to new approaches to manipulating immunity to enhance responses to infection and reduce those against autoantigen. He will briefly outline this work and also overview that of others in Cambridge, including Lalita Ramakrishnan, Sharon Peacock and Andres Floto, who focus on host-response dependent approaches to therapy in AMR.
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Professor Liz Sockett runs a research group, funded by BBSRC Leverhulme Trust and other agencies, on the predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus. This bacterium naturally kills Gram negative bacteria and is coming to the fore in the fight against antibiotic resistance in Gram negative pathogens. It will kill pathogens of crops and of animals and humans, including those that are antibiotic resistant. There is no simple receptor for Bdellovibrio attack and so no simple resistance that can arise by target evolution. Her research includes the application of whole Bdellovibrio as antibacterials and fundamental understanding of how predatory enzymes kill Gram Professor Liz Sockett negative bacteria. Bdellovibrio can be a whole cell therapaeutic, living antibiotic, or a source of antibacterial enzymes to use as University of Nottingham novel agents (some 200 novel predatory gene products are [email protected] candidates). It could be cultured simply as low tec. solution to gram negative bacterial infections in developing communities or developed into a high tec pharma agent. However there are some licencing issues about using therapeutic live organisms, even beyond those of phage therapy. Research is at a pre- clinical state, partly pioneered by our lab we have conducted the first animal trial in chicks (showing anti-Salmonella effects without problems re welfare) and also shown that Bdellovibrio can act in crop protection against Pseudomonas infections. We would welcome contacts with industrial partners from agricultural or pharamceutical sectors and concersations with others working on Gram negative infections.
Panos Soultanas is a Professor of Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry at the University of Nottingham. He obtained his BSc (Biochemistry/Microbiology) and PhD (Molecular Biology) degrees from the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Sheffield, in 1987 and 1991, respectively. He, subsequently, worked as a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Bristol (1991-94), the University of Crete (1995-96) and Oxford University (1996- 2000) where he carried out research on site specific Professor Panos recombination, DNA helicases, DNA primases and DNA Soultanas replication. In October 2000 he was appointed to a Lectureship at the School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham. He was University of Nottingham promoted to a Readership in 2004 and to a Chair in 2008. In Panos.Soultanas@nottingham 2012 he was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Biology (FSB). .ac.uk His main area of research is structure/function relationships of DNA replication enzymes and DNA replication and repair in the Gram positive model Firmicute Bacillus subtilis. Panos’ work in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) focuses in identifying new targets the area of replication initiation and recently in the effects of human cytokines on bacterial physiology and virulence as well as the effects of ferric quinate (FeQ) on biofilms and antibiotic resistance. Panos and collaborators have discovered recently that FeQ (a natural product used a siderophore in plants) has the ability to block bacterial biofilms, enhance antibiotic sensitivity and reverse antibiotic resistance in several Gram +ve and –ve bacteria. The technology has now been licensed to Akeso Biomedical (Boston, USA) and is protected via one full patent and one provisional patent. Page 62 of 95
I have broad interests in issues relating to antimicrobial from antibiotic resistance to their synthesis and in phage biology.
I have a long term interest and knowledge of phage biology. While we have always been focussed on phages that infect the antibiotic producers, Streptomyces spp., I am interested in all phage regardless of host. My main focus is on the biochemistry and molecular biology of phage integrases, but we are also actively studying phage-host receptors and we have a track record in bacterial defence mechanisms.
Professor Maggie Smith Our primary interest in antibiotic resistance lies in understanding how interference with housekeeping processes in bacteria can University of York lead to antibiotic hypersensitivity. In this project we are using [email protected] Streptomyces coelicolor, an organism that is has a high level of innate resistances to antibiotics. We envisage being able to extend these interests to pathogenic actinobacteria and in the longer term to other Gram +ve and G-ve bacteria. James Soothill has for the past 15 years been a consultant Medical Microbiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. Previously he was a Lecturer (clinical in medical Microbiology) at the Universtiy of Manchester, and before that a Wellcome Clinical Fellow at the University of Birmingham. At Great Ormond Street Hospital There are many immunocompromised children, vulnerable to antibiotic resistant infection, so the recent global rise in resistance has been a concern. Dr Soothill pioneered experimental investigation into the use of phages for the treatment of antibiotic resistant infections. He has demonstrated efficacy of phages in the control of experimental infections by P Dr James Soothill aeruginosa , A baumanii, and S aureus and has had promising results in clinical P aeruginosa infections Great Ormond Street Hospital [email protected]
Prof Bo Su is Professor of Biomedical Materials within the Department of Oral & Dental Sciences at the University of Bristol. The focus of his research is primarily on scientific understanding of materials processing/patterning and applied research on engineering solutions for biomedical applications. His current research interests include cell-instructive materials/surfaces to modulate cells and bacteria, in particular, micro- and nano-topographical control of stem cells and bacterial fate, and biomimetic/bio-inspired materials. His recent work demonstrates that cicada wing-like surfaces with nano-pillars Professor Bo Su and -wires topographies possess anti-fouling and bactericidal properties which could potentially offer an alternative therapy to University of Bristol treat biomaterial-associated infection, including those caused by [email protected] AMR bacteria.
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Dr Reiko Tanaka is a lecturer in the Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London. Her main interest in AMR is mathematical modelling approach of bacterial infection from a control engineering perspective. She has been working in the area of systems biology for >12 years, having established herself in systems and control engineering. With her EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellowship (2009-2014), she developed and used tools from systems and control engineering to elucidate the role of epithelial activities in infectious and inflammatory disease, that helped to identify and guide necessary experiments and to reveal fundamental regulatory mechanisms leading to Dr Reiko Tanaka disease. I will contribute to the multidisciplinary nature of this research challenge by providing the tools and technologies Imperial College London needed for therapeutic development, using my strong expertise [email protected] in mechanistic modelling of microbial infection from the control engineering perspective.
Peter Taylor is currently Professor of Microbiology at University College London School of Pharmacy. His career has included spells in the pharmaceutical industry in the areas of anti- infective drug discovery (Sandoz AG, Bayer AG) and drug formulation and delivery (Ciba-Geigy, Novartis). Since returning to academia in November 1998 his research has focused on new and alternative approaches to the therapy of severe infections due to Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens, with particular emphasis on under-exploited targets (such as duplex DNA) and agents that resolve infection by modification of the bacterial phenotype (such as antibiotic resistance modifiers and virulence attenuators). He is particularly interested in the impact Professor Peter Taylor of drugs and the environment on the bacterial phenotype and this has led to studies of the effect of natural products (such as University College London green tea catechins) and simulated reduced gravity [email protected] environments on the behaviour of staphylococci, including multi- drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). He also researches the molecular basis of neonatal sepsis and meningitis due to neuropathogenic Escherichia coli and is attempting to develop novel therapeutic and preventative strategies for these infections. He currently sits on the Experimental Bacteriology Steering Committee of the Bloomsbury Institute for Pathogen Research (BiPR), a recently established joint venture between University College London (UCL) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). His interest in the treatment of tuberculosis is facilitated through membership of the MRC-funded TB Drug Discovery UK consortium: http://www.tbd-uk.org.uk/
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I completed my PhD (organic chemistry) in 1996 at the University of Bordeaux I, under the guidance of Prof. Jean- Baptiste Verlhac (synthesis and study of Mn and Fe complexes as biomimetic oxidation catalysts). After a 1-year post-doctoral project under Prof. Dave Leigh at UMIST (Manchester), and a short 3-month stay at Oxford Diversity Int., I was hired at Unilever’s (Household and Personal Care) research and development centre in Port-Sunlight (UK). There, I worked on oxidation catalysis for Laundry, then in a project to identify active ingredient to straighten hair and finally Dr David Tetard in identification of inhibitors of enzymes and metal chelators as biostatic agents for the deodorant category. Northumbria I joined Northumbria Uni (as senior lecturer) in late 2007 where University I work on metal chelators against neurodegenerative diseases [email protected] and as biostatic agents as boosters of antibiotics. These .uk compounds could be used as synergistic boosters of existing and future antimicrobial agents and therefore could be used to combat antimicrobial resistance). Dr Helen Townley is the William Dodd Research Fellow in the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and a Senior Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. Dr Townley’s research group works on nanoparticle synthesis for a number of different applications. Research interests include nanoparticles for imaging, nanodelivery of therapeutics, and inorganic nanoparticles for intracellular treatment. Helen also worked for several years in Plant Sciences and has an interest in plant- based antimicrobials.
Dr Helen Townley AMR interests We have designed a system in which biocide-loaded mesoporous University of Oxford silica nanoparticles (MSNP) can be capped with a degradable [email protected] material that is consumed by the microorganism. Furthermore, the capping material can be varied so that it is only degraded by specific populations within a bacterial community. Advantages include:
• Highly selective and targeted biocidal systems can be designed. • Release of biocide into the environment only when target bacteria are present. • Reduction of the opportunity for antibiotic resistances to develop. • Can be used with conventional biocides • Volatile biocides, to-date unusable in practical applications, can be encapsulated • Particularly suited to use of natural, plant-based antimicrobials.
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I am the Head of Infections and Immunity at the Medical Research Council and I lead on our antimicrobial resistance strategy. I also chair the UK antimicrobial resistance funders forum and represent the UK on the EU Joint Programming Initiative in Antimicrobial Resistance. I have worked in a number of areas at the MRC including establishing our Stratified Medicine consortia, developing academic/industry research collaborations and working with international funders in infectious disease.
Dr Desmond Walsh
MRC DESMOND.WALSH@HEADOFF ICE.MRC.AC.UK Mike heads Altermune Technologies, a privately owned Biotech company with a novel therapeutic platform technology designed to redirect potent and pre-existing host immunity to fight infectious diseases and cancer. An area of current interest to discover pathogen-specific anti-bacterials that target hospital- acquired, Gram-negative infections. Mike has 15 years’ Anti-Infectives R&D Pharma Industry experience, at Roche and Pfizer. Whilst at Pfizer, Mike led a virology team that supported the discovery and clinical development of multiple HIV and HCV targeting compounds, Dr Mike Westby including those that target host immunity. In 2005, Mike focused his research activities on understanding the mechanisms of Altermune Technologies resistance to maraviroc (Celsentri™) as a first-in-class HIV drug. [email protected] Mike also formed the ‘Opportunities for Partnership in Medicine’ Research Unit. The OPM mission was to advance its Anti- Infectives portfolio through Research Alliances, partnerships and collaborations; this unit secured productive partnerships with Universities, other companies and non-for-profit organisations. Mike trained in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at University of Durham and obtained his PhD at Warwick University. As a post doctoral research fellow at St George’s Hospital Medical School, Mike studied the immunopathogenesis of HIV, before taking up a position in the virals group at Roche Discovery in 1997.
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Ramesh Wigneshweraraj is a Professor of Microbiology and Wellcome Trust Investigator at the MRC Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection at Imperial College. His laboratory investigates the mechanisms that underpin the activity of bacterial RNA synthesis machinery, the RNA polymerase, and virulence gene expression and stress adaptation in bacterial pathogens at molecular, structural and genome-wide levels. A major line of research in Prof Wigneshweraraj's laboratory is the development of truly novel antibacterial lead compounds based on phage-inspired strategies to combat antibiotic Professor Ramesh resistant bacteria, which he collaboratively pursues with Wigneshweraraj Domainex Ltd.
MRC Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection at Imperial College London [email protected]
Professor David Williams (DW) is a microbiologist with over 25 years of research experience spanning across several disciplines in microbiology including food microbiology, oral microbiology and microbial biofilms. He currently leads the Microbial Disease Research Unit of the School of Dentistry at Cardiff University. DW has applied his research to the detection of biofilm microorganisms and means to eradicate them from environments, where their presence can lead to human infection. He has been extensively involved in the study of biofilms associated with infections of the mouth, lower airways, chronic wounds and urinary tract. DW’s research into biofilm microorganisms has highlighted their associated AMR (>1000- Professor David Williams fold less susceptible than the free living counterparts) and their recalcitrance to removal within clinical infection. Cardiff University DW has ongoing and close collaboration with clinical researchers, [email protected] material scientists, engineers, chemists and industrial partners.
Paul Williams is currently Professor of Molecular Microbiology in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham U.K. He was Director of the Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation from 1996-2007 and Head of the School of Molecular Medical Sciences from 2008 to 2013. His research interests centre around the molecular and chemical biology of bacterial quorum sensing (QS) systems with respect to (a) virulence and biofilm development, (b) the impact of QS signal molecules on other microbes, host cells and tissues and (c) QS systems as therapeutic targets for anti-infective agents which control infection by attenuating virulence. With respect to the latter, lead compounds have been identified through Professor Paul Williams structure activity relationship studies and the crystallization of key target proteins to gain detailed insights into signal University of Nottingham molecule/inhibitor interactions. More recently Prof. Williams’ [email protected] group has developed a high throughput screening strategy for .uk novel biocompatible polymers which resist bacterial attachment. This work has resulted in the discovery of a new class of non- toxic, bacteria resistant polymers which are currently under clinical evaluation as coatings for medical devices. Page 67 of 95
Eddy began his career in academia in Canada and Manchester with a degree in Microbiology and a PhD in virology researching herpes virology before joining the Wellcome Research Labs in Beckenham in 1990 as Head of Molecular Sciences. He joined GlaxoWellcome as Head of Antiviral Research in 1995. In 2000 he left GSK to join Medivir as Senior Director with responsibility for lead discovery and the UK site. Amongst other projects Eddy was an integral part of the development and out-licensing of Medivir’s hepatitis C protease drug Simeprevir now launched by J&J. Eddy joined Domainex as CEO in 2006 leading the company Dr Eddy Littler through three investment rounds. Eddy has had honorary lectureships with the Universities of Manchester and Kent, is an Domainex Ltd industrial advisor to the University of Leeds and consults for the [email protected] Wellcome Trust.
Fernando obtained his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Complutense University of Madrid where he did research in bio-transformations of beta-lactam antibiotics and soon after he was recruited by SmithKline Beecham for its drug screening facilities in Spain. He has been at GSK for 20 years working in the early stages of drug discovery. He started running high throughput screening (HTS) campaigns against targets from all therapeutic areas using natural products as the source of chemical diversity. After 8 years, Fernando transitioned to file Dr Fernando Ramon compound screening and he was particularly involved in the design, development and exploitation of cutting edge screening GSK technologies. Later, he became the head of Biological Reagents [email protected] and Assay Development group in Spain where he was responsible for taking drug discovery projects from therapeutic hypothesis to hit identification, with particular focus on tuberculosis, malaria and diseases caused by kinetoplastids. More recently, Fernando has become the leader of the External Projects group in Spain, being in charge of bringing innovative drug discovery projects in partnership with academia to fruition. In this role, he has been involved in selection of proposals and design and implementation of project plans.
Adam’s background is in molecular microbiology, having gained his PhD at the John Innes Centre focusing on gene regulation in soil bacteria, and subsequently performed post-doctoral studies on nucleic acid processing in yeast and E. coli. He has been with Phico since 2002 and leads research and development within the company, as well as managing subcontracted activities with contract research organisation and manufacturers.
Dr Adam Wilkinson
Phico Therapeutics Ltd [email protected]
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Contact Details
If you have any questions about this initiative please contact: Ghada Zoubiane (MRC) [email protected]
Members of the Cross- Council Initiative:
• Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC)- http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Pages/Home.aspx • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)- http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/home/home.aspx • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)- http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/ • Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)- http://www.esrc.ac.uk/ • Medical Research Council (MRC)- http://www.mrc.ac.uk/ • Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)- http://www.nerc.ac.uk/ • Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)- http://www.stfc.ac.uk/home.aspx
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Annex 3: AMR Diagnostics Delegate Booklet
Tackling AMR – A Cross Council Initiative - Theme 2
Workshop: Developing Diagnostic Tools for Bacterial Infection and AMR
Information for Workshop Delegates
Monday 1st December 2014
BIS Conference Centre, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET
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Background Information
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), especially resistance to antibiotics, is a growing global problem. We are facing a rise in the number of bacteria becoming resistant to existing antibiotics without an increase in new antibiotics or new treatments. It is clear that an interdisciplinary approach is needed to tackle these challenges and make a step change in addressing antimicrobial resistance. The AMR Funders Forum has identified 4 key themes to target current and future investments. These themes will foster collaboration between diverse disciplines, share information across the public and private sectors, allow access to tools, compound libraries, datasets and screens to acquire new insights into the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria, the evolution of resistance and to drive the discovery of new diagnostic, preventative and therapeutic strategies for bacterial infections particularly antibiotic resistant strains. The current focus of this initiative is on resistant bacteria of humans and animals. A thematic approach:
Theme 1: Understanding resistant bacteria in context of the host,
Theme 2: Accelerating therapeutic and diagnostics development,
Theme 3: Understanding the real world interactions,
Theme 4: Behaviour within and beyond the health care setting.
This workshop falls under Theme 2: Accelerating therapeutic and diagnostics development. The Research Councils wish to bring together researchers from a range of scientific disciplines, from both academia and industry, to discuss the key challenges of AMR and to encourage networking around this topic. In addition, this information will feed into the call to be launched under Theme 2 of the AMR Cross Council Initiative in 2015.
The core aims of this Workshop are:
● To encourage networking of researchers across areas to forge strong multi-disciplinary research teams,
● To encourage partnerships between academia and industry to accelerate the exploitation of small molecule therapeutics,
● To provide an opportunity for consortia to start to come together resulting in the development of strong, innovative outline proposals,
● To provide an opportunity to have input into funding models, assisting the Research Councils to shape the call for Theme 2 of the AMR initiative.
For more information: http://www.mrc.ac.uk/research/initiatives/antimicrobial- resistance/tackling- amr-a-cross-council-initiative/
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Agenda
AMR Cross- Council Initiative Theme 2 Workshop:
‘Developing diagnostic tools for bacterial infection and AMR’
Monday 1st December 2014
09:30 Registration, Tea and Coffee
10:00 Introduction from the Chair, Professor Stephen Holgate, University of Southampton
10:10 Dr Ghada Zoubiane, MRC - Tackling AMR, a Cross-Council initiative
10:20 Professor Alison Holmes, Imperial College, London
10:45 Professor John Wain, University of East Anglia/Discuva
10:55 Dr Jon Read, University of Liverpool
11:05 Professor Chris Toumazou, Imperial College, London
11:15 Professor Chris Butler, University of Oxford
11:25 Professor Joyce Tait, University of Edinburgh
11:35 Mrs Tamar Ghosh, NESTA
11.45 Breakout session 1
Translating new diagnostics into the clinic:
• What type of diagnostic is needed? • What are the biggest challenges in this process? • How do we learn from failures of the past? • Who plays a role in this?
12:30 Networking Lunch
13:15 Feedback from Breakout session 1 discussions
13:45 Breakout session 2
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Promoting interdisciplinary research:
• What disciplines are needed? • How can we encourage interdisciplinary research? • How can we bring different experts together especially those from outside the AMR field? • In addition to expertise, what other resources are needed?
14:30 Feedback from Breakout session 2 discussions
15:00 Coffee and Tea
15:15 Dr Desmond Walsh, MRC
15:30 Group discussion on the topic of funding – Dr Desmond Walsh, MRC
● What should the Funders support? • What should the funding model look like? • How flexible does the funding need to be? • How can we work with industry
16:15 Summary of the day and next steps – Professor Stephen Holgate and Dr Desmond Walsh
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Delegates
Prof Abubakar (MBBS, DPH, MSc, PhD, FFPH, FRCPE, FRCP) is a Professor in Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Research Department of Infection and Population Health, UCL and the MRC Clinical Trials Unit. He is Director of the UCL TB Centre and of the UCL Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology. He also heads the TB Section at the National Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance and Control, Public Health England (PHE), Colindale, London. Prior to his appointment at UCL, he was Professor in Health Protection at the Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia. He qualified in medicine in 1992 and initially trained in general medicine Professor Ibrahim before specialising in public health medicine. His academic public health Abubakar training was undertaken at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of Cambridge and the University of East Anglia. In University College addition to advising the UK Department of Health on tuberculosis control, London he runs a programme of research on tuberculosis and other infectious [email protected] diseases. He co-authored the CMO annual report chapter on antimicrobial resistance and currently chairs the NICE guideline development group for TB and the WHO Europe TB Elimination Plan advisory Group. He is a member of the WHO Global Task Force on TB Impact Measurement and serves on/chaired several working groups for the European Centre for Disease Control and the WHO.
I have worked in Amsterdam at the Royal Tropical Institute for 5 years in the development and evaluation of diagnostics for the Kinetoplastida diseases. Each specific disease has a unique set of challenges from appropriate initial diagnosis to elimination settings where different tools become more suitable. I work on both serological tests, suitable for primary diagnosis, and molecular tools which can be used for patient Dr Emily Adams follow-up, pharmacokinetics, drug resistance monitoring, speciation and elimination programs where diagnosis of asymptomatic individuals may
become important. Liverpool School of I am part of Centre for Applied Health Research (CAHRD) at LSTM and am Tropical Medicine a joint appointment with the University of Warwick, Medical School. [email protected] I am the Honorary Communications Secretary for the British Society for k Parasitology, and welcome any contact from those interested in joining or contributing articles to the society (www.bspuk.org). My research interests encompass three broad themes: the bacterial-host interaction, functional metagenomics and novel antibacterial approaches. Bacterial-host interaction. My recent research has focussed on investigating the gene expression patterns of bacterial pathogens within host environments with a view to understanding the signalling pathway, the molecular basis of the interaction and identifying bacterial products suitable for diagnostics and novel antibacterial approaches.
Functional metagenomics: We have used functional metagenomics to Dr Elaine Allan screen gene libraries for antimicrobial resistance genes (that may have University College value in diagnostics) and also new antimicrobials. London Novel antibacterial approaches: We have focussed on characterisation the [email protected] exopolymers involved in biofilm formation which can be targeted for diagnostics and for new antibacterial approaches.
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Roz Anderson is a pharmaceutical chemist with current research projects in
cystinosis, psoriasis, and bacterial detection. She has approx. 10 years’ experience in the development of chemical probes for the selective
detection and identification of pathogenic bacteria. Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team with academic heterocyclic and analytical chemists, clinical microbiologists and industry, several successful chromogenic and
fluorogenic molecules have resulted in patents, publications and commercial products. Professor Roz Anderson At this MRC event, Roz represents a team of academic and clinical scientists from the UK Universities of Sunderland and Northumbria, the University of Sunderland University of Sydney, Australia, and the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon roz.anderson@sunderland. Tyne. We aim to exploit our combined knowledge of targeting specific ac.uk bacteria and the design and synthesis of fluorogenic molecules to develop rapid bacterial identification systems, with the potential for simultaneous multi-detection of pathogenic bacteria.
David Armstrong is Professor of Medicine and Sociology in the Department of Primary Care & Public Health Sciences. His research interests include the sociology of medical knowledge, health services research and factors affecting clinicians’ behaviour. He is a past member of the Medical Research Council and Chair of one of its Boards and is currently Director of the NIHR’s Research for Patient Benefit Programme.
Professor David Armstrong
King's College London [email protected] Dr Ashworth, Clinical Senior Lecturer, Department of Primary Care and Public Health Sciences, King’s College London. I am a practicing GP in an inner London GP training practice and also Clinical Senior Lecturer with a research interest in antibiotic prescribing and antimicrobial resistance. In 2004, I led a GPRD study exploring the reasons for reductions in antibiotic
prescribing in primary care. We found a 45% reduction in antibiotic prescribing for respiratory infections over the period 1994-2000. The Dr Mark Ashworth greatest reductions were observed for patients with upper respiratory tract King’s College London infections. Nevertheless, we found that 90% of patients with a ‘sinusitis’ [email protected] diagnostic coding were given an antibiotic in 2000. Further work explored differences in antibiotic prescribing rates according to age bands and the high proportion of pre-school children and also very elderly patients who are prescribed antibiotics for respiratory infections.
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Matthew Avison is a PhD biochemist with expertise in protein chemistry - particularly high throughput LC-MS/MS proteomics - and the genetic manipulation of bacteria for functional genomics purposes. He has been working as a PI - primarily studying antibiotic resistance mechanisms in Gram negative bacteria - for 15 years. Currently, his group is investigating the control of intrinsic resistance gene expression (principally beta-
lactamases, RND efflux pumps and porins), factors affecting the Dr Matthew Avison mobilisation and expression of plasmid mediated resistance genes, and the
physiological cost of acquiring resistance. The translational aim of this work University of Bristol is to develop inhibitors of resistance and novel methods to identify resistant [email protected] strains. He has served terms as an editor for the Journal of Antimicrobial c.uk Chemotherapy and the Journal of Medical Microbiology.
Professor Balachandran is a Research Professor and Director of Centre for Electronic Systems Research (CESR) at Brunel University. He is a Fellow of IEEE, IET, InstP, InstMC and Royal Society of Arts. He served as Head of Department of Systems Engineering at Brunel University from 1999 to 2004. He was a Visiting Professor in the Driftmier Engineering Centre at University of Georgia in 1993 and 1996. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Mansoura, Egypt and Dongguan University, China since 1993
and 1996 respectively. In 2004 he was a Visiting Scholar in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at University of California, Los Angeles, Professor Wamadeva funded by Royal Academy of Engineering. His research interest spans Balachandran several different disciplines: Micro/Nano Technologies, Microengineered devices for POCT, Biosensors, Medical Electronics and m-health. He has Brunel University actively pursued research in interdisciplinary fields for more than 30 years [email protected] and published over 350 papers to date and filed 15 patent applications. He is the microengineering workstream lead on the eSTI2 project funded by the MRC, which is led by St. George’s Medical School with collaborating partners from UCL, Queen Mary, Warwick University and PHE. His interest in the on-going research is to further extended it to addresses AMR Theme 2, to underpin the development of rapid, POC diagnostics to enable the most appropriate therapy to be chosen.
Dr Annette Bramley Theme Leader, Healthcare Technologies Challenge Theme at Engineering
and Physical Sciences Research Council EPSRC [email protected] .uk
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Karl Burgess is a Bacteriology Research Fellow in Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation at the University of Glasgow. His research interests focus on the use of mass spectrometry in biomedical research, particularly in the understanding of infectious disease. This multidisciplinary research area builds on his fruitful collaborations with cell biologists, engineers, bioinformaticians, instrumentation developers and clinicians. Karl obtained a Bachelor degree in Pathobiology from
Reading University. He then went on to develop his bioinformatics skills Dr Karl Burgess with an MSc at Birkbeck College, University of London, followed by an MRes
in Biomedical and Life Sciences at the University of Glasgow. After being University of Glasgow introduced to mass spectrometry during his MRes, he remained at Glasgow [email protected] for a PhD in proteomic methods development. After a short post-doc on the k RASOR proteomics project, he became head of the newly established, SULSA-funded, Glasgow University Metabolomics Facility, where he remains. He also obtained a Wellcome Trust ISSF (Institutional Strategic Support Fund) fellowship in 2012, where he studies the mechanisms of adherence in pathogenic biofilms.
Chris Butler is professor of primary care in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford and Professorial Fellow at Trinity College. His main research interests are in common infections (especially the appropriate use of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance), and health behaviour change (especially adaptations of motivational interviewing in health care). Chris has a shared role with
Cardiff University, where he is professor of primary care medicine. He is
Professor Chris Butler Director of the Wales School of Primary Care Research and of the National Institute of Social Care and Health Research (NISCHR) Clinical Care
University of Oxford Collaboration, and serves on the Medical Research Council Efficacy, [email protected]. Mechanisms and Effectiveness Board. He is an inaugural NISCHR Senior ac.uk Faculty member, and holds honorary Professorships at McMaster University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has published nearly 200 indexed papers and has helped win over £100M in research and research infrastructure funding. He practices as a GP in Mountain Ash in the South Wales.
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Chief Executive of Spectromics, a spin out from Manchester University with novel technology for rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing. He is also Chairman of Atlas Genetics, a molecular diagnostics company. He is also on the Supervisory Board of Genomic Vision a Paris based diagnostic business focused on structural rearrangements in DNA, and he is on the Board of Radisens Diagnostics a point-of-care company in Ireland. Prior to his position at Spectromics he was founding CEO of Vivacta a point-of-care
immunochemistry company acquired by Novartis in 2012. Before joining
Vivacta he was founding CEO of Oxford Biosensors. Mr Neil Butler Spectromics was formed in April 2014 as a spin out from the MIB, and uses
a proprietary spectroscopy method to rapidly detect antimicrobial Spectromics Ltd susceptibility. The company is developing a 10 minute point-of-prescription [email protected] test that fits within normal patient appointments in primary care, for guiding antibiotic treatment. The first test is for UTI and this will determine if the patient has a bacterial infection, and if so which antibiotic/s the infection is sensitive to out of a panel of 8 candidates. Spectromics are interested in engaging with clinical groups to collaborate on test method development and characterisation, and also interested in working with anti- infective companies (branded generic and new products) on existing and new targeted therapeutic applications.
I am a principal investigator at the University of Oxford (MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow, Nuffield Department of Medicine) and a specialist in Medical Microbiology (Hon Consultant Med Microbiology, John Radcliffe Hospital). I was trained in Medical Microbiology at the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona and in then moved to London to do an MSc in molecular methods
applied to the study of infectious diseases (LSHTM, 2000). I obtained my PhD in 2004 (University of Oxford) and spent several years as a clinical Dr Climent Casals- research fellow in several African countries (Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique Pascual and Gambia). Aims to develop diagnostic tools and novel clinical algorithms that can be used by clinicians to identify those patients who are likely to University of Oxford benefit from antimicrobial treatment. To identify suitable candidate [email protected] biomarkers we use proteomic methods (tandem mass spectrometry, LC- MS/MS) and machine-learning algorithms. We work in close collaboration with mathematicians, engineers and the industry to develop and evaluate the efficacy of simple and affordable point-of-care diagnostic tools to improve antimicrobial stewardship.
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Professor Cosby was appointed to the Chair of Microbiology in Queen’s University Belfast in 2002 and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (London) and a Fellow of the Society of Biology. She has recently been appointed as Head of Virology in the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute in Northern Ireland. Professor Cosby has served/currently serves on various grant and editorial boards: BCB board/advisor BBSRC, UK; Chair/member, Science Foundation Ireland
board; Health Research Board, Ireland; Deputy Chair Professional Professor Louise Cosby Development Committee, Society for General Microbiology, UK; Gerson
Lerman’s Group’s Healthcare Advisor’s Board, USA; Associate Editor, Queen's University Belfast Journal of Neurovirology, USA; Review editor, Frontiers in Microbiology [email protected] (Virology section); External Assessor for Appointments and Promotions in Medical Microbiology, University of Malaysia. Professor Cosby’s particular interest have been on the factors which determine neurovirulence of measles and the veterinary morbilliviruses using studies in the natural host, in vivo models and primary and differentiated cell culture systems. More recent studies have focused on virus receptors in relation to cross species infection and virus neural and respiratory infection. Her interest in AMR focuses on molecular point of care tests to distinguish virus and bacterial infections to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing.
I practice as a consultant in clinical virology and hold an Honorary Professorship with Queen’s University Belfast. I support a broad constituency of health care professionals in the community, hospital sectors and Public Health Medicine. I also have active teaching and research profiles, the latter being both translational and developmental. My research aim is in the development of productive collaborations (clinical, academic & commercial) Professor Peter Coyle to address relevant clinical problems and improve patient outcomes. My Queen's University Belfast current focus of interest is in the diagnosis and management of respiratory [email protected] tract infections and of infections related to pregnancy. scni.net
Roberto de la Rica was educated at The Autonomous University in Barcelona (Spain) where he obtained his MS degrees in Chemistry and Biochemistry. He did his PhD at the National Centre for Microelectronics in Barcelona in the field of biosensors. During his post-doctoral career in Hunter College-CUNY, University of Twente and Imperial College London, Dr. de la Rica developed a wide array of technologies for the direct
detection of pathogens and proteins that can be easily translated to point- of-care diagnostics. He is currently a Lecturer in Bionanotechnology at the Dr Roberto de la Rica University of Strathclyde, where he is developing nanosensors for the naked eye detection of analytes with only a few simple analytical steps. He University of Strathclyde aims to establish connections with a network of medical doctors that could [email protected]. provide first-hand information about the particular needs of point-of-care uk diagnostics in the fight of antimicrobial resistance, and that could help him translate his findings in biosensors to the clinic.
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Dr. Enne a Senior Researcher from UCL working in partnership with Dr.
Vanya Gant at UCLH. She represents the cross-disciplinary expertise available in antimicrobial resistance and novel diagnostic strategies for AMR at UCL Partners; comprising UCL, LSHTM, QMUL and associated hospitals. She is the scientific lead for RiD-RTI (www.rid-rti.eu), a multi-partner EU FP7-funded consortium developing novel molecular diagnostic tests for respiratory tract infections. Other current research areas include clinical evaluation and implementation of rapid molecular diagnostics and optimising their usage in order to minimise unnecessary antimicrobial Dr Vivre Enne prescribing.
Vicky obtained her PhD investigating the persistence of antibiotic resistance University College at Barts and The London in 2001 and has a long-standing interest in London antimicrobial resistance. She has broad-ranging experience in various [email protected] aspects of antimicrobial resistance, clinical microbiology and molecular microbiology. Particular topics of interest include development and evaluation of novel rapid diagnostics, mobile genetic elements, fitness cost of resistance, gene regulation and persistence of resistance in the absence of selection. She has authored numerous publications of these subjects and is a member of the Editorial Board for Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.
Ian Fallis is a synthetic chemist with broad interests in sensors, diagnostics and applied inorganic chemistry. He has particular interests in antimicrobial applications of transition metal complexes.
Dr Ian Fallis
Cardiff University [email protected]
I am an infectious disease physician and clinical microbiologist based at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme. My research interest is invasive Salmonella disease in Malawi, where sequential epidemics of Salmonella bloodstream infection have been accompanied by the emergence of multidrug resistance.
Dr Nicholas Feasey
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Nicholas.Feasey@LSTMed. ac.uk
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Philip graduated from the University of Cambridge with an MSci in Physics
before spending three years as an analyst at Capital One Bank. He then returned to science and studied for his PhD at UCL under the supervision of Peter Coveney before starting a postdoctoral position working with Mark
Sansom in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford where he has been working since 2006. He is an expert in simulating the behaviour of membrane proteins and has worked with many different experimental collaborators. He is interested in antibiotics, distributed computing and calculating binding free energies using computer simulation. He blogs at http://philipwfowler.wordpress.com and occasionally tweets as @philipwfowler. Dr Philip Fowler
University of Oxford [email protected]. uk BE MSc PhD Lecturer in Healthcare Engineering Design and development of biosensor platforms for rapid detection, screening or characterization of biomolecules and biological particles: electromechanical detection principles and techniques, design and microfabrication of microfluidic sensor cartridges, bio-assay and bio- instrumentation. Focus on system and protocol design that ensure high performance with portability, ease-of-use and regulatory alignment to realise commercially exploitable prototypes.
Dr Sourav Ghosh (Unable to attend Workshop)
Loughborough University [email protected] Tamar is leading on the development and delivery of the Longitude Prize at Nesta. Longitude is a challenge to science and technology with a £10m prize fund, to develop an affordable, point of care diagnostic tool to help fight antibiotic resistance. Before Nesta Tamar founded and ran 2 social enterprises in global and national healthcare, which continue in her spare time. Prior to that she spent more than a decade developing and delivering funding strategies for international NGOs, specialising in private sector partnerships, most recently as Head of Global Funding at VSO. She has an MBA and Masters in Development Studies. Tamar also delivered the social action campaign ‘Give More’ on behalf of one of the leading UK family
foundations, promoted the giving of money and time amongst the UK public. Mrs Tamar Ghosh Tamar is a trustee of 2 charities, a consultant on funding ethics and
fundraising, and a guest speaker at Imperial College Business School on NESTA innovation and entrepreneurship as part of their MBA and masters in health [email protected] programme. k
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Duncan Graham is Research Professor of Chemistry and director of the centre for molecular nanometrology at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. He has been awarded numerous awards for his research including the RSCs SAC Silver medal (2004), Corday Morgan prize (2009), a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit award (2010), the Craver Award from the Coblentz Society (2012) and was elected to the fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2008). He has published over 200 papers and
graduated over 45 PhD students. He is a cofounder and director of Renishaw Diagnostics Ltd (2007) and has filed 13 patents with license deals Professor Duncan on most of his portfolio. He completed at PhD in organic chemistry at the Graham University of Edinburgh (1996) and his interests are in developing new diagnostic assays based on nanoparticles and spectroscopy with target University of Strathclyde molecules including DNA, RNA, proteins and small molecule biomarkers. [email protected] .uk Dr. Guy, Associate Professor within the College of Engineering at Swansea University, is the lead academic in device fabrication & clean room semiconductor processing. His sensor group has over 7 years’ experience in biosensor technology (based on graphene & silicon) & produced the world’s first epitaxial graphene sensors. Since then the group has developed a nanotechnology sensor platform. Single analyte proof of concept devices, developed for detection of biomarkers including: troponin (cardiac disease),
hCG (pregnancy) & 8OHdG (cancer risk marker), through successful EPSRC Dr Owen Guy project (EP/I00193X/1), are capable of detecting disease biomarkers at
ultra-low (pg/ ml) concentrations. Such sensitivity enables biomarker Swansea University detection in real clinical applications – enabling a saliva or urine-based [email protected] diagnostic, where biomarker concentrations maybe lower than in blood. Dr. Guy and Swansea University have IP covering the generic biosensor technology (WO2011004136 (A1) “Graphene Biosensor”, 07 July 2009) & the multiplexed biosensing platform (P100072GB “Biosensor” Patent Application No 1311760.1, 01 July 2013). Dr. Guy is also pioneering integration of active biosensor chips with microfluidics & packaging solutions – critical to translating R&D into real products. Dr. Guy has also developed hollow silicon MN technology through EPSRC, KTP, & TSB projects with other industry & academic partners, for drug therapy applications. Our patented microneedle technology can be adapted for smart functionalisation of biosensor devices and targeted reagent delivery.
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I am a Medical Microbiologist by training and have obtained my Ph.D. in 1993 in the lab of Prof. Joachim Frey at the University of Berne, Switzerland. From 1994-1997 I have been trained in Molecular Bacterial Genetics in Prof. Barry Wanner's lab at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA From 1998-2009 I have worked at Arpida AG (Reinach, Switzerland) in
various functions in R&D of anti-infectives; in particular I was heading the Dr Andreas Haldimann Molecular Biology/Bacterial Genetics group and was strongly involved in
antibacterial target evaluation. Roche Infectious Diseases From 2009-2014 I was Clinical Project Manager & Scientific Manager at Acino Pharma AG, Aesch, Switzerland. Since October 1, 2014 I am Senior Principal Scientist at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Infectious Diseases.
I work for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) in the Biomedical Sciences Department, where I technically lead and project manage a number of projects within the Antimicrobials area of the Microbiology group. The aim of this area is to identify and evaluate compounds that have broad spectrum efficacy, both in vitro and in vivo. These range from novel compounds under development to commercial off
the shelf products and are made available to us through collaboration with Dr Sarah Harding academia and industry, both nationally and internationally. I am currently
working at MRC two days a week helping with Theme 2 of the Cross Council MRC AMR initiative. Sarah.Harding@headoffice. mrc.ac.uk
Alastair qualified with Distinction in Medicine from Sheffield Medical School in 1991. He has been a General Practitioner since 1997 and joined the Centre for Academic Primary Care at the University of Bristol in 2001. Alastair is now Professor of Primary Care and a NIHR Research Professor at the University of Bristol, where he leads a programme of primary care oriented infection research, including the use of antibiotics and
antimicrobial resistance (AMR), in the School of Social and Community Professor Medicine. Alastair Hay On-going AMR research includes: Observational studies investigating the
significance of upper respiratory tract microbes for the diagnosis and University of Bristol prognosis of RTIs in children presenting to primary care; Observational [email protected] studies investigating the relationship between primary care prescribed antibiotics and bacterial resistance in paediatric urinary isolates; Four RCTs investigating the effectiveness of antibiotic alternatives; The development of a prognostic algorithm to help primary care clinicians target antibiotic treatment to the children at highest risk of hospitalisation for RTIs.
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Dr Jane Hodgkinson is a Senior Research Fellow who joined Cranfield from the gas industry in 2004, via an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship (GR/TO4595). She leads a gas detection activity within the Engineering Photonics Centre, with projects funded by the EPSRC and TSB. Recent project include: (i) A novel, ultra-low volume gas cell for point of care diagnosis of hospital-acquired infection, funded by the TSB (Ref 100846). The "DIABLO" consortium (Detection Of Infectious Agents By Laser Optics) includes Cranfield University, Cascade Technologies Ltd and Bedford Hospital NHS Trust. (ii) Novel non-dispersive infrared sensors for CO2 with
a supplier of OEM gas sensors (Alphasense Ltd), resulting in a granted Dr Jane Hodgkinson patent and launch of a new line of sensors (iii) Use of integrating spheres as multiple pass gas cells that are easy to align during manufacture and Cranfield University field robust. Currently being applied to environmental gas sensing on [email protected]. board light aircraft (NERC NE/K008307, Royal Society Paul Instrument uk Fund PI120057).
Stephen is MRC Professor of Immunopharmacology at the University of Southampton. After qualifying in Medicine in London, he pursued a research career on the mechanisms of asthma and allergy involving a wide range of different approaches. He has a particular interest in the toxicology of air pollutants and the roles of viruses and allergens as drivers of airway inflammation and remodelling. His work has resulted in 1000 peer reviewed publications (H index 141).
He was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, Professor Stephen was founder chair of the DH Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Holgate Pollution, Past President of the British Society of Allergy and Clinical (Chair) Immunology and British Thoracic Society and, until 2011, chaired the MRC
Population and Systems Medicine Board and is currently chair of MRC’s University of Southampton Translational Research Group and Member of Strategy Board. He is a [email protected] Trustee of CRUK, the British Lung Foundation and the Kennedy Trust. Personal Awards include the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine, Paul Ehrlich Award for Research, European Academy of Allergy, American Thoracic Society (ATS) Recognition Award for Scientific Accomplishments, William Frankland Award for Outstanding Services to Clinical Allergy in the UK, British Thoracic Society Medal and is among the top 400 most highly influential biomedical researchers. In 2011 he was appointed CBE for services to clinical science. He currently chairs the Main Panel A (Medical, Health and Biological Sciences) of REF2014, the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) Board, the Hazardous Substances Advisory Committee (Defra) and the European Respiratory Society Scientific Committee. He has recently been appointed to the European Commission's Scientific Panel for Health (SPH) that will help set the research agenda for “Horizon 2020”.
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Alison Holmes is a Professor of Infectious Diseases and Director of Infection Prevention and Control (DIPC) for Imperial College Healthcare
NHS Trust. Alison is also Director of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Healthcare Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance. Together with Public Health England Lead Alan Johnson, Professor Holmes directs the work of 4 themes: Applied molecular bacteriology, Applied data linkage, syndromic surveillance and modelling, Innovations in behaviour change, technology and patient safety to improve infection prevention and antimicrobial use and Organisational change, health economics, sustainability and evaluation. The HPRU, which Professor Alison Holmes was established on 1 April 2014, is a partnership between Imperial College
London, Public Health England, Cambridge University Veterinary School, Imperial College London the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Imperial College Health Partners North West London Academic Health Science Network. Alison is also Co- [email protected] Director of the UKCRC funded National Centre for Infection Prevention and Management. Ruth works for the MRC Infection and Immunity Board and the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) for AMR as the AMR Science Manager. http://www.jpiamr.eu/.
Ruth Kelly
MRC [email protected] .ac.uk I am a clinical microbiologist with an interest in the diagnosis and prevention of infections, particularly surgical infections. I am interested in novel diagnostics that will improve antibiotic use and strategies to reduce the transmission of antimicrobially resistant infections.
Dr Andrew Kirby
University of Leeds [email protected] Professor Nigel Klein is Professor and Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, London, and the Institute of Child Health, University College London. He trained at UCL, obtaining degrees in Anatomy and in Medicine. He establiehed the Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Unit at ICH and helped establish the Department of Infection at UCL. He has been working
in the fields of Infectious Diseases for many years and has a particular Professor Nigel Klein interest in Meningitis, Sepsis, Innate Immunity, HIV, Microbial Diagnostics University College and HACI. London [email protected]
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TF Krauss, Professor of Photonics, University of York The aim of my research is to understand and control the light-matter interaction in photonic nanostructures, and to build functional devices that make use of this understanding. My activity spans the study of fundamental concepts such as light propagation and localisation to more
applied areas such as semiconductor nanofabrication, biosensors and solar
cells. My interest in AMR is to apply novel methods from the physical Professor Thomas sciences, such as photonic and electronic label-free detection and imaging Krauss techniques, microfluidics and Raman spectroscopy, to distinguish between
different species and serotypes and to assess antimicrobial resistance. University of York [email protected] Dr Xianghong Ma is a Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Aston University. She graduated with a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and worked in the GE Global Research Centre in Schenectady, NY before beginning her academic career at Aston. She has dedicated her research to the application of micro/nano technologies in biomedical engineering over
the past ten years, and is an expert on microfluidics, micro and
Dr Xianghong Ma nanomechanics and their application in biomedical devices. In broader sense, her team has expertise in the state-of-the-art MEMS design,
Aston University microfabrication and manufacturing processes needed for developing [email protected] microfluidic and micromechanical sensors and transducers. More specifically relating to AMR diagnosis, her team has developed a novel BioMEMS sensing system that is proposed as a revolutionary point-of-care (PoC) diagnostic platform technology. The technology has the potential to be integrated into a number of devices in support of rapid detection of pathogens at PoC, in supporting determination of their susceptibility to different antibiotics or other biocides.
I am Reader in the Biology and Biochemistry Dept. of the University of Bath. I have worked on several human pathogens over the duration of my career including Salmonella, E. coli, Pseudomonas, most recently focusing on Staphylococcus aureus.
I am interested in this call as I aim to lead a collaborative team to develop
a point of care diagnostic platform to diagnose ESKAPE organisms whilst Dr Ruth Massey simultaneously determining their antibiotic resistance profile.
University of Bath [email protected]
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Mike McPherson is Professor of Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Leeds and is a member of the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology with over thirty years’ experience in molecular biology and protein expression and engineering. He has held a Royal Society/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship and is currently a member of the BBSRC Pool of Experts. His research has focussed upon structural molecular biology of copper oxidases, membrane protein expression and the recombinant
production of self-assembling peptides. He has recently developed a novel Professor Michael robust protein scaffold – termed “Adhiron” – which can be used for the McPherson selection of artificial binding proteins against a wide range of organic and
inorganic molecules. This led to the establishment of the Leeds University of Leeds BioScreening Technology Group of which he is Director. This group [email protected] underpins research across interdisciplinary academic, clinical, government k and commercial collaborations. He is currently developing Adhirons for a wide range of scientific and clinical research applications including the development of highly sensitivity (fM) Adhiron-based biosensors. From the MRC AMR perspective he represents a consortium of the University of Leeds, Public Health England, Blueberry Therapeutics Ltd and Oxford Protein Production Facility.
Hywel Morgan is a Professor of Bioelectronics at the University of Southampton, and a Royal Society Industry Fellow with Sharp Labs Europe. His first degree is in Electronic Engineering at the University of Wales, Bangor (1981). He was appointed to a lectureship at the University of Glasgow in 1993. In 2003 he moved to Southampton where he is currently Deputy Director of the Institute for Life Sciences. He has published widely with over 200 refereed papers, 12 patents and a text-book on AC electrokinetics. He has served on the editorial board of several journals,
Professor Hywel Morgan including Lab on Chip, and is currently a member of the editorial board of Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, and Biomicrofluidics. In 2004 he was
University of Southampton awarded the Desty memorial prize for innovation in separation science. He [email protected] is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. His research interests are in microfluidic systems and the Lab on Chip, particularly focused on single cell assays, miniature diagnostic systems and environmental sensors. He manages a large research project with Public Health England and Sharp Labs Europe, developing Point of Care technology for the rapid identification of anti-microbial resistance in bacteria from urinary tract infections. The technology is fast (10minutes) and could be applied to bacteraemia, pneumonia, and sexually transmitted diseases.
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I gained my B.Sc. in Microbiology, my M.Sc. (Res) in infectious diseases molecular diagnostics and my Ph.D. in molecular diagnosis of bacterial pathogens in food all at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG). This was followed by a two-year post-doc at NUIG, where my research focussed on lab-on-a-chip technology and isothermal amplification based infectious diseases diagnostics. This led to a multi-million dollar diagnostic development collaboration with Beckman Coulter and I was employed by
the company in 2008 to develop real-time PCR based molecular diagnostics Dr Justin O'Grady assays for infectious diseases including Mycobacterium tuberculosis. I moved back into academia in 2010, taking up a post-doc position at University of East University College London, again working on TB diagnostics. Anglia In January 2013 I joined UEA (Lecturer in Medical Microbiology, Norwich Medical School) where my research focuses on the molecular diagnosis of [email protected] pathogens and associated antimicrobial resistances in complex clinical syndromes such as sepsis, respiratory tract infections and urinary tract infections. A particular focus is on the application of next generation sequencing in clinical diagnostics. We are investigating the potential of nanopore sequencing (Oxford Nanopore’s MinION device) for rapid, routine profiling of pathogens in clinical samples, possibly at the point-of-care. Mark Phillips is Design Director of Design Futures, a design group based at Sheffield Hallam University that applies a creative, technical and strategic expertise to the research, design and development of new products and packaging. He is a graduate of the Royal College of Art / Imperial College of Science Technology & Medicine’s Industrial Design Engineering Master’s degree course. Mark has over 20 years’ experience of designing and developing products across medical, FMCG, consumer and industrial sectors for diverse clients - from SMEs to major multinationals, including: Adidas, Mark Phillips Kenwood, Kinematix, Matsushita, P&G, Vernacare and Unilever. He has managed a wide range healthcare design/R&D related projects, often Design Futures involving human centred design and participatory design approaches, [email protected] including: hospital communications, medical systems monitoring, surgical equipment and lighting, patient monitoring systems, orthoses and wearable diagnostic monitoring devices.
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Dr Tim Planche is a HEFCE funded Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Institute of
Infection and Immunity with an interest in healthcare associated infections and antimicrobial resistance. He is a clinical microbiologist working at St.
George’s Hospital in London and is currently the head of the Department of Medical Microbiology. Dr Planche completed his doctoral research on severe malaria but since has
worked on bacterial healthcare associated infections, particularly C. difficile and has completed a study on C. difficile diagnostics and has on-going
research interests in C. difficile and other healthcare associated infections. Dr Tim Planche Clinically, Dr. Planche leads a large microbiology department with 7
consultants and a laboratory processing over 600,000 specimens per year St George's, and over 70 staff. In addition, with the rest of the consultant staff, he gives University of London clinical advice across the hospital, manages over 20 patients on outpatient [email protected] intravenous antibiotics and infection control and antibiotic policy at St.
George’s. Working at the coalface of infection control and the management
of infection helps greatly with designing and implementing translational research embedded in the NHS with easy translation into practice. Jonathan Read is a Lecturer in Epidemiology at the University of Liverpool. He has a post-doctoral background in developing theoretical models of infectious disease evolution. Since starting at Liverpool, he has designed and established epidemiological field studies on influenza in China, USA and Viet Nam, as well as conducting a major survey of social mixing behaviour in the UK. His main research theme is the marriage of field work and modelling of infectious diseases, in particular the quantification of human
behaviours relating to transmission, understanding the structure of contact networks, and developing better models of infectious disease dynamics. Dr Jon Read
University of Liverpool [email protected] c.uk Sian is currently a Strategy and Policy Officer in the Agriculture and Food Security team and is responsible for BBSRC strategy and activities in
microbiology (including antimicrobial resistance, food-borne zoonosis, and TSEs) and post-harvest food waste. Sian represents BBSRC on the Antimicrobial Resistance Funders Forum.
Sian Rowland
BBSRC [email protected]
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Holger Schulze is a Research Fellow at the Division of Infection and Pathway Medicine of the University of Edinburgh and a Diagnostic Biosensor Development Scientist at Mölnlycke Health Care Scotland. Holger studied chemistry at the University of Stuttgart and did a PhD in biosensors at the Institute of Technical Biochemistry of the University of Stuttgart in 2003. Since 2006 he is at the Division of Pathway Medicine of the University of
Edinburgh working with Till Bachmann on the development of molecular diagnostic point of care tests for infectious diseases and antimicrobial Dr Holger Schultze resistance and for two years he is now also employed by Mölnlycke Health Care Scotland in Edinburgh. Holger will be the representative for Till University of Edinburgh Bachmann at the MRC Workshop on developing diagnostic tools for [email protected] bacterial infection and AMR who unfortunately cannot attend the workshop as he is co-hosting the UK-Japan Workshop on BioSensing Technologies for [email protected] the Innovative Healthcare in Tokyo the same day. Graham Snudden is a successful software entrepreneur, most notably at BlueGnome Ltd; a molecular diagnostics business which he founded in 2002 and sold to Illumina Inc. in 2012. In April 2014 Graham co-founded BUGS Bioscience Ltd as a not-for-profit spin-out from St Georges, University of London. BUGS Bioscience’s first product, a complete solution for the molecular serotyping of Streptococcus pneumonia, combines high throughput genomics and cloud based software
to investigate the impact of vaccines on nasal carriage and associated Mr Graham Snudden disease.
BUGS Bioscience brings to AMR world class expertise in pathogen genomics Bugs Bioscience combined with a novel, self-funding, not-for-profit business model, [email protected] commercial software development and sales processes, and the ability to develop and deploy new innovations in molecular surveillance in both developed and developing countries. [email protected] Joyce Tait has an interdisciplinary background covering both natural and social sciences and has worked on the agrochemical, pharmaceutical and life science industries, specifically strategic planning for innovation, governance and regulation, and stakeholder attitudes and influences. Relevant life science areas include synthetic biology, genetic databases, GM crops, biofuels, pharmaceuticals, stem cell therapies and translational medicine. Current and recent appointments: John Innes Centre Science and Impact Advisory board; UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) Synthetic Biology Leadership Council (Chair of Governance Professor Joyce Tait Subgroup); UK Department of Health Emerging Science and Bioethics Advisory Committee (ESBAC); Board of Directors, Roslin Foundation; University of Edinburgh Scottish Science Advisory Council. She also chaired the Working Party of [email protected] the Nuffield Council on Bioethics on ‘Biofuels: Ethical Issues’. She has worked on several issues related to the control of infectious diseases including: risk assessment for the UK Government foresight initiative on Detection and Identification of Infectious Diseases; study on the UK preparedness for an influenza pandemic; and most recently the ESRC funded Independent Review on Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR): Potential to Change the Regulatory System.
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Professor Chris Toumazou, Regius Professor of Engineering, Chair in Biomedical Circuit Design, Director of the Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology and Founder and Chief Scientist for the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College. He is also Founder, Chairman or CEO of two successful Medical Device Companies (Toumaz Technology and DNA Electronics) and Chief Scientific Advisor to GENEU. He is distinguished for his innovative silicon technology and integrated circuit design for electronic device in the field of devices for medical diagnosis and therapy. Professor
Toumazou is pre-eminent amongst the global community of contemporary Professor Chris medical engineers. In 1994 Toumazou was appointed the youngest Toumazou Professor ever to be appointed at Imperial College, at the age of 33. In
2013 he became London’s First Regius Professor of Engineering conferred Imperial College London to Imperial College during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. [email protected] k I’m the marketing manager for a new Diagnostics business unit in Molnlycke Healthcare and have spent most of the last 10 years working in Point of Care Diagnostics. My background covers; Marketing, Sales, R&D, Product Development and Management across a wide range of industries including BioTechnology, Information Technology and even the retail goods sector. I recently made the move to a Healthcare company having witnessed, first hand, the impact antimicrobial resistance has on individuals and their families. For the time being these are still preventable conditions,
Dr Carmelo Volpe let’s keep them that way.
Mölnlycke Health Care Carmelo.Volpe@molnlycke. com
John Wain is Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of East Anglia, the CSO and director for Discuva and Bactevo Ltd. and founding editor of the Journal of Infection in Developing Countries. He is a bacteriologist and international authority on Salmonella and other gastrointestinal pathogens with over 30 years' experience in the identification of bacterial pathogens and antibiotic resistance. Having started work as a graduate biologist in the public health laboratory service in the UK in 1981, and continued into the NHS from 1989-1992, John Wain pursued a research career in medical microbiology with a Ph.D at Birmingham University a decade at the Wellcome Trust oversees Unit in Vietnam and three years postdoctoral research at Imperial College. This Professor John Wain was followed by a faculty position in Cambridge at the Welcome Trust
Sanger Institute and a senior lectureship at the University of Liverpool. In University of East 2008 Dr Wain became the head of the largest bacteriology reference Anglia/Discuva laboratory in the UK at Colindale: The laboratory for Gastrointestinal Pathogens, before moving into his current role of leading research in GI [email protected] infections and developing translational research in diagnostic microbiology at the UEA.
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Professor Tim Walsh
University of Bristol [email protected] I am the Head of Infections and Immunity at the Medical Research Council and I lead on our antimicrobial resistance strategy. I also chair the UK antimicrobial resistance funders forum and represent the UK on the EU Joint Programming Initiative in Antimicrobial Resistance. I have worked in a number of areas at the MRC including establishing our Stratified Medicine consortia, developing academic/industry research collaborations and working with international funders in infectious disease.
Dr Desmond Walsh MRC Desmond.Walsh@headoffic e.mrc.ac.uk A Biologist by early training and inclination, Dr Chris Walton’s research career has spanned three decades and an eclectic mix of disciplines including engineering, software development, mathematical modelling, database design, metabolic medicine and statistics. He is currently Lecturer in Analytical Technology in the Institute of Environment and Health at Cranfield University, where his research interests focus on the application of volatiles analysis in environmental monitoring and medical diagnostics. He was responsible for the design and construction of Cranfield Health’s Single Metal-Oxide Sensor Gas Analyser (SMOS-GA), a novel breath Dr Chris Walton sampling instrument which has been used in clinical tests in diabetes
mellitus (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) and gastrointestinal Cranfield University disease (Wellcome Trust). The latter study also identified a range of faecal [email protected] volatile biomarkers in of potential value in the differential diagnosis of Crohn’s disease. More recently he completed a study in which a number of volatile markers for Clostridium difficile infection were elucidated, with a diagnostic performance comparing favourably with current enzymatic methods (Technology Strategy Board). Dr Walton is a Member of the Institute of Biology, a Chartered Biologist, and an Affiliate of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
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Peter Wasson is a Scientist who has recently joined MRC Technology (MRCT) in Edinburgh. After graduating from Sheffield Hallam University, Peter worked as a Biomedical Scientist in the virology department of Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge. In 2011, he was awarded his PhD by the University of Edinburgh and subsequently worked as a Career Development Fellow in the Centre for Virus Research at the University of
Glasgow-MRC. At MRCT, we are currently producing an assay in Dr Peter Wasson conjunction with Renishaw Diagnostics to address the problem of
antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This rapid diagnostic assay has excellent MRC Technology multiplex capability and is used to detect antibiotic resistance genes in [email protected] clinical samples, eliminating the need for overnight culture. .uk
My BSc (Hons) was in Microbiology with Biochemistry and my PhD was multidisciplinary in nature, combining aspects of microbiology, surface engineering and surface analysis. I am an active researcher in a number of areas. A microbiologist by training, my area of interest is multidisciplinary, but is primarily focused in the problems associated with antimicrobial resistance from three directions; 1) Surface:microbial interface interactions, the
production of antimicrobial, hygienic and anti-adhesive surfaces and Dr Kathryn Whitehead textiles, and their efficacy in reducing the use of antimicrobials 2) Antimicrobial chemotherapy (small molecules, antimicrobial peptides,
Manchester Metropolitan functionalised molecules), in order to find new solutions to combat University antimicrobial resistance and 3) The design and testing of novel medical [email protected] solutions, sensors and interventions to combat disease and the overuse of antimicrobials. (Unable to attend Workshop)
Nicola is a microbiologist and Senior Lecturer in Bacterial Zoonotic Disease and her interests include bacterial zoonoses (including antimicrobial resistance) in wildlife, food and companion animal species, investigating reservoirs, survival in the environment, fitness and transmission between animals and to humans. She is interested in rapid diagnostics to promote and inform prudent use of antibacterials, as well as rapid methods for
exploring the molecular epidemiology of AMR.
Dr Nicola Williams
University of Liverpool [email protected]
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MRC Headoffice Programme Manager for the Infections and Immunity Board. Ghada has been at the UK Medical Research Council since 2008 leading on different areas of research including Ageing, Public Health Partnerships and more recently Infections, in particular antimicrobial resistance.
Dr Ghada Zoubiane MRC ghada.zoubiane@headoffic e.mrc.ac.uk
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Contact Details
If you have any questions about this initiative please contact: Ghada Zoubiane (MRC) [email protected]
Members of the Cross- Council Initiative:
• Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC)- http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Pages/Home.aspx • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)- http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/home/home.aspx • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)- http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/ • Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)- http://www.esrc.ac.uk/ • Medical Research Council (MRC)- http://www.mrc.ac.uk/ • Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)- http://www.nerc.ac.uk/ • Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)- http://www.stfc.ac.uk/home.aspx
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