Antimicrobial Resistance

Professor Joanna Coast (Bristol Medical School) was one of two scientific consultants, along with Dr Adam Roberts (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine), for this award-winning drama set in a near-future in which doctors can no longer prescribe antibiotics. The drama aired in January 2018, and on February 3rd 2019 was awarded Best Original Series or Serial in the BBC Audio Drama Awards. The drama was written by Oliver Emanuel, produced by Kirsty Williams and arose from a Wellcome and Radio 4 Experimental Stories workshop in 2015, that brought together writers, producers and academics to discuss antimicrobial resistance

On 30 January 2019, Dr Paul Race (School of Biochemistry) featured in the BBC One documentary 'The Truth About Antibiotics' and discussed his team's search for new antibiotic-producing bacteria living in deep-sea sponges recovered from the Atlantic ocean. Dr Race also showed how he is using a 3D printer to create isolation chips which can grow up to 50 times more bacteria than standard culture plates to help speed up the antibiotic discovery process

Prof Matthew Avison (School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine) gave a public lecture on 'Antibiotic resistance: We're all in it together' on 13 November 2018 at the University of Bristol.

Dr Paul Race (School of Biochemistry) was an invited speaker at the New Scientist Live festival in September 2018. He outlined his major research project seeking to identify new antimicrobials from microorganisms that live in previously unexplored habitats on the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean, which can only be accessed using remotely operated robotic submersibles. This project is already yielding a rich diversity of novel antimicrobial agents that show promise for future use in public health.

Material scientists from the Bristol Dental School illustrated how the novel antimicrobial materials they are developing for the next generation of medical devices (such as catheters), implants and prostheses, can physically rupture bacterial cells thus preventing the formation of bacterial biofilms which can lead to difficult to treat post-surgery infection, requiring weeks of antibiotic therapy and even revision surgery.

Prof Matthew Avison (School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine) chaired an innovative discussion session with an interdisciplinary group of PhD students from Biomedical Sciences (Juan-Carlos Jimenez-Castellanos), Health Sciences (Sarah Garner), Law (Louise Hatherall) and Veterinary Sciences (Gwen Rees) who set out what their research tells us about the global problem of AMR and where some of the solutions can be found.

"When someone you love is dying how far would you go to save them? In this 10 page digital exclusive Rosa Scott helps her cousin, Sun Walker, a chemical scientist with a risky plan that could kill or cure". Prof Adrian Mulholland (School of Chemistry), PhD student Paul Walker (School of Chemistry) and Dr Rob Hughes (Dept. Mechanical Engineering) were consultants for the story line. Prof Matthew Avison (School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine) is also a consultant for the Surgeon X comic book series which is set against the backdrop of an antibiotic apocalypse in near future London.

BristolBridge and the Bristol ChemLabS outreach team organised and hosted a Schools conference on AMR. Around 160 biology ad chemistry A-level students and 15 teachers from nine schools across the south west attended the lectures, hands-on displays and discovery-led demonstrations. Staff and PhD students from four University of Bristol faculties helped the students examine the threat of global AMR and how interdisciplinary research approaches are helping to tackle the problem.