Two Indian and institutes collaborate on project to combat antibiotic resistance

The Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham’s School of Biotechnology and Tata Institute of Genetics and Society (TIGS) under the guidance of University of California San Diego (UCSD) have collaborated on a new project to study antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This rapidly-growing phenomenon that threatens to make once-treatable bacterial infections deadly again, jeopardizes the effectiveness of modern medicine. Antimicrobial resistance is increasingly globally at an alarming rate, making it difficult to treat some of the more common infections. Despite the dangerous increase in multidrug resistance, there are limited options and strategies available to address the crisis. WHO has even gone as far as to classify multi-drug resistant bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a ‘Critical Priority’ in global unmet needs to eliminate and treat patients in hospital environments. [caption id=“attachment_3797309” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “Recent studies have led to the identification of many genes in pathogenic microorganisms that are responsible for resistance to antibiotics," said Dr Bipin Nair, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at Amrita. “The collaboration will focus on developing new tools to reverse antibiotic resistance…. it holds the potential to develop novel sustainable strategies to counter the global menace of multi-drug resistant (MDR) organisms,” Nair added. The institutes have also worked together earlier on establishing the mechanism of action of natural products like clove bud oil to inhibit quorum sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and attenuate virulence. “This MoU signed between TIGS and Amrita will pave the way for cutting-edge research in antimicrobial resistance for the benefit of humanity,” Professor Suresh Subramani, Global Director, Tata Institute for Genetics and Society said.