✕
☰

£9.5m awarded to tackle AMR

by

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is giving almost £10m in grants as part of an initiative to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

Three large collaborative grants, totalling £9.5m, mark one of the biggest investments into AMR since the initiative launched and will use new technology to exploit natural compounds, develop a tool to offer better and faster diagnostics and explore how the body’s own immune system can be boosted to fight infection, according to MRC.

The world is facing an increase in the number and type of bacteria resistant to antibiotics alongside stagnation in the development of new antibiotics or viable alternatives.

The MRC said it has been working with the other research councils that form Research Councils UK to identify research opportunities that cross disciplines to help tackle the rise in AMR.

The latest round of awards has been funded by the MRC, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through the AMR cross-council initiative, established in 2014 as part of a strategic and co-ordinated effort to address the growing problem head on.

Jonathan Pearce, head of infections and immunity at the MRC, said: “If the antibiotics that we rely on to protect us after common surgery like caesareans, joint replacements, chemotherapy and transplant surgery, don’t work, it’s going to have a catastrophic effect on our healthcare system.

“That’s why it’s so important we continue to invest in research into AMR. There is undoubtedly an urgent need to develop new antibiotics but tackling the issue of AMR is about much more.

“We need to be imaginative and look at what alternatives there are to antibiotic use, and to do this successfully we need to work in partnership.

“These awards are a concrete example of what the MRC in collaboration with the other research councils is doing across a wide range of disciplines to fight AMR.”

The three projects receiving funds from the grants are:

Back to topbutton