AMR.Solutions

Global AMR Hub (Berlin) seeks Scientific Program Officer

Dear All,

The G20’s Global AMR R&D Hub (https://globalamrhub.org/, see below my signature for a brief history of the Hub) has a job opening from 1 Feb 2021 for a Scientific Program Officer. Here’s a brief description of the role:

Contributes expert knowledge on AMR R&D to the further development of the Dynamic Dashboard and to the overall work of the Global AMR R&D Hub;
Works with colleagues at the Secretariat and with outside experts and stakeholders analysing the data that have been and are being gathered in the Dynamic Dashboard;
Contributes to the strategic development of the Global AMR R&D Hub, including through developing concepts and presentations;
Represents the Global AMR R&D Hub in interactions with stakeholders at international level;
Communicates effectively about the work of the Global AMR R&D Hub.

Could this globally facing role be you? Go here for the full job description. The closing date for applications is 1 December 2020.

All best wishes, –jr

John H. Rex, MD | Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd. | Operating Partner, Advent Life Sciences. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRex_NewAbx. See past newsletters and subscribe for the future: https://amr.solutions/blog/. All opinions are my own.

Brief background: The Global AMR Research and Development (R&D) Hub was launched by the G20 leadership in May 2018 with a mandate to address challenges and improve coordination and collaboration in global AMR R&D using a One Health approach. The Global AMR R&D Hub collects and presents information on AMR R&D investments, products and market interventions. To position itself as the key knowledge centre for AMR R&D the work of the Hub is strategically aligned into three key pillars that encompass (i) guiding and supporting evidence-based decision making; (ii) enhancing collaboration and coordination; and (iii) promoting awareness, knowledge and visibility in the field (go here for a strategy overview paper).

Current funding opportunities (most current list is here):

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Applicant Assistance Program (AAP) opens on October 22, 2020. This program provides no cost support for companies planning to apply for a Phase II, Fast Track, or Direct-to-Phase II SBIR or STTR Award. Go here for details.
Novo REPAIR Impact Fund closed its most recent round on 31 Jul 2020. Go here for current details.
2020 funding rounds for CARB-X have not been announced.
The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes funders and projects by geography, stage, and more.
It’s not a funder, but AiCuris’ AiCubator offers incubator support to very early stage projects. Read more about it here.
ARLG (Antibiotic Resistance Leadership Group, link) is currently open for applications for its 2-year ARLG Fellowship program. The application deadline is 1 Dec 2020; full details are here.
Finally, you might also be interested in the most current lists of R&D incentives (link) and priority pathogens (link)

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community (most current list is here):

16 Nov 2020 (online, 9.30a-4.00p EST): FDA workshop entitled “Potential Approach for Ranking of Antimicrobial Drugs According to Their Importance in Human Medicine: A Risk Management Tool for Antimicrobial New Animal Drugs.” Go here for the FR notice and here for extended details, including registration.
17 Nov 2020 (online, 17:00-18:30 CET): GARDP-sponsored webinar entitled “Discovery of new antibacterials using artificial intelligence (computational chemoinformatics)” moderated by Laura Piddock. Go here to register.
[NEW] 18 Nov 2020 (online, 15:00-16:00 GMT, London): Wellcome Trust-sponsored webinar entitled “The Global Response to AMR.” This will be the launch of a report by Wellcome on progress and gaps in addressing AMR since the 2016 UN High-Level AMR Meeting. Go here to register.
18 Nov 2020 (online, 14:30-15:30 CET): GARDP-sponsored webinar entitled “Drugs don’t work: What can be done to fight the threat of antibiotic resistance for effective cancer treatments?” moderated by Ingrid Stenstadvold Ross (CEO, Norwegian Cancer Society). Go here to register.
18-24 Nov 2020 (everywhere): World Antimicrobial Awareness Week. For resources, go here for WHO’s home page for the week. The focus will be on two messages: “Antimicrobials: handle with care” and “United to preserve antimicrobials.”
19 Nov 2020 (online, 9-10.30am EST) webinar chaired by Jeremy Knox entitled “Responding to difficult-to-treat infections: Role and responsibilities of governments, researchers, clinicians, industry and patients”, the final webinar in a 4-part series sponsored by Wellcome Trust entitled “AMR in the Light of COVID-19 Webinar Series; From hypothetical to reality: How COVID-19 foretells a world without antibiotics.” Go here to register.
20-22 Nov 2020 (online, 13:00-18:00 GMT: Global AMR Youth Summit sponsored by the World Health Students’ Alliance (WHSA). Go here to register.
20 Nov 2020 (online, 10:30a-noon CET): GARDP-sponsored webinar entitled “Saving childrens’ lives – treating neonatal sepsis” moderated by Peter Beyer (Senior Advisor on AMR, WHO). Go here to register.
[NEW] 2 Dec 2020 (online, 3 sessions spanning 5am-5.15p GMT): Global AMR Hub-sponsored conference entitled “Translating AMR R&D mapping into policy and action.” Go here for the full program
- 5-7.15a GMT: “Identifying research gaps to address antimicrobial resistance relevant to the Asia Pacific Region”
- Noon-2.15p GMT: Filling AMR R&D gaps in animal health at country, regional and global level
- 3p-5.15p GMT: Working together to fill AMR R&D gaps – collaboration and partnerships
[NEW] 3 Dec 2020 (online, 9-10:30a CET; 5-6:30p KST): Multi-sponsored webinar entitled “Evidence to Action – Advancing the Antimicrobial Resistance agenda during a pandemic.” Go here to register. Co-hosted by the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions (ICARS), and the Embassy of Denmark in Korea, this webinar includes Dame Sally, Hanan Balkhy (WHO), and the Minster of Health from both South Korea and Denmark!
26-28 Jan 2021 (online, runs ~7.30a-5.00p Central each day): 4th Annual Texas Medical Center Antimicrobial Resistance and Stewardship Conference. Sponsored by McGovern Medical School, ARLG, and the Gulf Coast Consortia, the agenda includes both poster sessions and keynotes. The call for abstracts closes 18 Dec 2020. Go here for more details.
10-12 Mar 2021 (Stellenbosch, South Africa): The University of Cape Town’s H3D Research Centre will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a symposium covering the Centre’s research on Malaria, TB, Neglected Tropical Diseases, and AMR. Go here to register; abstract deadline is 15 Nov 2020.
9-12 Jul 2021 (Vienna): Annual ECCMID meeting (#31)
18-21 May 2021 (Albuquerque, New Mexico): Biannual meeting of the MSGERC (Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium). Save-the-date announcement is here, details to follow.
20-24 June 2021 (Toronto): International Symposium on Pneumococci and Pneumococcal Diseases (ISPPD-12). Go here for details.
3-7 Jun 2021 (Anaheim), ASM Microbe 2021. Go here for details.
27 Jun-2 Jul 2021 (Ventura, CA): Gordon Research Conference entitled “Antimicrobial Peptides”. Go here for details, go here for the linked 26-27 Jun Gordon Research Seminar that precedes it.
5-21 Aug 2021 (Marine Biology Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA): Residential course entitled “Molecular Mycology: Current Approaches to Fungal Pathogenesis.” This 2-week intensive training program has run annually for many years and gets outstanding reviews. Go here for details.
8-11 Oct 2021 (Aberdeen, Scotland): 10th Trends in Medical Mycology. Go here for details.
[Webinar streaming link posted] 16-24 Oct 2021 (Annecy, France): Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance (ICARe). This is a soup-to-nuts residential course on antibiotics, antibiotic resistance, and antibiotic R&D. The course is very intense, very detailed, and gets rave reviews. Registration is here and is limited to 40 students. Bonus feature: For obvious reasons, the course didn’t happen in 2020! But as a celebration of the course’s 5th year, a webinar version was held on 29 Oct 2020: go here to stream it.
6-11 Mar 2022 (Il Ciocco, Tuscany): Gordon Research Conference entitled “New Antibacterial Discovery and Development”. Go here for details, go here for the linked 5-6 Mar Gordon Research Seminar that precedes it.

Dear All,

The IDWeek 2024 program committee is again seeking programs on novel antimicrobial agents and novel diagnostics for presentation in pipeline sessions! Here’s what is sought:

“Industry partners are invited to submit antimicrobials that are in preclinical stages of development (Phase II and III preferred) or recently approved after January 2024.
“The pipeline sessions will include antibacterials, antifungals, and antivirals (excluding COVID-19 and HIV).
“The committee also invites companies developing novel diagnostic technologies with a minimum of some preliminary proof of concept data to submit.”

This is a great opportunity to tell the story of your development project! The deadline to submit is Wednesday, June 26 via the application portal. Any questions should be directed to program@idsociety.org. Please share this email with anyone you think might be interested in applying!

In addition, I’ll also note that those with a more general story to tell should look at the BugHub Stage (and the Global BugHub stage). Both BugHub variants seek “presentations that touch on your experience of working in infectious diseases and presentations that ultimately lead to a greater understanding of our diverse field” via a TED Talk-esque speech about your work. The deadline for applications is 26 June, the same as for the pipeline sessions.

I look forward to seeing you there! All best wishes, –jr

John H. Rex, MD | Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd. | Operating Partner, Advent Life Sciences. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRex_NewAbx. See past newsletters and subscribe for the future: https://amr.solutions/blog/. All opinions are my own.

John’s Top Recurring Meetings

Virtual meetings are easy to attend, but regular attendance at annual in-person events is the key to building your network and gaining deeper insight. My personal favorites for such in-person meetings are below. Of particular value for developers are the AMR Conference and the ASM-ESCMID conference. Hope to see you there!

27-30 April 2024 (Barcelona, Spain): 34th ECCMID, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Go here for details.
17-20 Sep 2024 (Porto, Portugal): ASM/ESCMID Joint Conference on Drug Development to Meet the Challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance. Go here for the meeting’s general website. You can’t register (yet) for the 2024 event, but save the date!
16-20 Oct 2024 (Los Angeles, USA): IDWeek 2024, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Save the date! More details to come!
25-26 February 2025 (Basel, Switzerland): The 9th AMR Conference 2025. Go here to register!

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

[NEW] 9 Apr 2024 (virtual, 830a-10a ET): GARDP’s next REVIVE webinar entitled “Progressing a discovery project – Criteria and challenges.” Register here.
[NEW] 9 Apr 2024 (virtual, 10a-1130a ET): CDC webinar “Impacts of Antimicrobial Resistance on Cancer Care.” Click here for details and to register.
10-11 Apr 2024 (virtual): Sepsis Alliance AMR Conference, a 2-day conference focused on “Practical technologies to manage sepsis and counteract the expanding challenge of antimicrobial resistance.” Go here for details and to register.
26 Apr 2024 (Barcelona, Spain): ESCMID workshop entitled “Using Data Science and Machine Learning for Infection Science: A Hands-on Introduction.” Click here to register or here for more details.
27-30 April 2024 (Barcelona, Spain): 34th ECCMID, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. See Recurring Meetings list, above.
26-31 May 2024 (Montreal, Canada): EDAR7, the McGill AMR Centre’s 7th edition of their Environmental Dimension of Antimicrobial Resistance conference. Go here for details; final abstract deadline is 21 Dec 2023.
28-29 May 2024 (in person, Uppsala, Sweden): Uppsala Antibiotic Days, a broad-ranging 2-day program hosted by the Uppsala Antibiotic Center. Go here for details and to register.
[NEW] 30-31 May 2024 (face-to-face in Rockville, Maryland as well as online, 8.30-5.30p ET on 30 May, 9-2.40p on 31 May): NIAID-sponsored workshop entitled “Towards realizing the promise of adjunctive immune therapy for invasive fungal infections”. The agenda covers host immunity to invasive fungal infections, immune modulators in the context of fungal infections; and strategies for testing immune modulators as adjunctive therapy. Go here for more details and to register.
9-13 June 2024 (in person, Ascona, Switzerland): “New Approaches to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, 2nd Edition” is a Sunday-Thursday residential workshop focused on the deep biology of AMR. Sponsored by NCCR AntiResist (a Swiss National Science Foundation consortium), the scientific program has the feel of a Gordon Conference. Space is limited, so you are encouraged to apply promptly — go here for details.
13-17 June 2024 (Atlanta, Georgia): ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. You can’t register yet, but you can go here for general details.
17-20 Sep 2024 (Porto, Portugal): ASM/ESCMID Joint Conference on Drug Development to Meet the Challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance. See Recurring Meetings list, above.
16-20 Oct 2024 (Los Angeles, USA): IDWeek 2024, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. See Recurring Meetings list, above.
19-27 Oct 2024 (Annecy, France, residential in-person program): ICARe (Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance). Now in its 8th year, Patrice Courvalin directs the program with the support of an all-star scientific committee and faculty. The resulting soup-to-nuts training covers all aspects of antimicrobials, is very intense, and routinely gets rave reviews! Seating is limited, so mark your calendars now if you are interested. Applications open in March 2024 — go here for more details.
4-5 Dec 2024 (in person, Washington, DC): “Fungal Dx 2024: Fungal Diagnostics in Clinical Practice” is a 2-day in-person workshop organized by ISHAM‘s Fungal Diagnostics Working Group. The program and registration links are available at https://fungaldx.com/; the agenda is comprehensive and features an all-star global list of speakers.

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