John Rex

Mirror Bacteria: An AMR threat of unprecedented magnitude

Dear All (wonkish but stick with it … I’m going to try very hard to de-wonk it), In an absolutely terrifying paper and technical report in today’s issue of Science, we are introduced in detail to the concept of “mirror” bacteria in which all chiral elements of the bacterium are replaced by their enantiomeric counterparts.

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(Re)using surveillance data: 2024 Vivli Challenge Awardees

Dear All, I’ve written before about the Vivli AMR Surveillance Data Challenge that seeks creative ways to reuse MICs from surveillance datasets (the 24 April 2023 newsletter covered the 2023 Challenge; the 15 June 2024 newsletter flagged the 2024 Challenge).  As a reminder, Vivli is a clinical data sharing platform that was created in 2013 from a

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The 6 meanings of “Lack of Access” (UNSLAP)

Dear All, We often talk about the problem of lack of access to new antibiotics. In late 2021, for example, we explored data showing that multi-year delays in access to new antibiotics were common even in high income countries (19 Aug 2021 newsletter with YouTube discussion).  But as we’ll learn today, that analysis considers only one

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NIAID/DMID call for antibacterials, antifungals, vaccines, & diagnostics

Dear All, Just released, the 2026 NIAID DMID Omnibus Broad Agency Announcement (HHS-NIH-NIAID-BAA2025-1) seeks applications for projects to treat, prevent, and diagnose bacterial, fungal, and viral infections. Of interest for this community, the BAA’s Research Area 001 seeks applications by 21 Feb 2025 for bacterial and fungal projects across thee topics (see below my signature for

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Sign a letter to help #PassPASTEUR!

Dear All,  MyCARE, a fungal patient advocacy organization, and the Partnership to Fight Infectious Diseases (PFID), are sending a letter to the California Congressional Delegation asking them to weigh in U.S. House and Senate leadership to pass the PASTEUR Act by the end of the year. The state of California has the largest Congressional delegation and

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Global Leaders Group on AMR has vacancies!

Dear All,  The Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (GLG AMR) chaired by Her Excellency Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados is putting out a call for more members! Founded in 2020 by the Quadripartite, the GLG AMR has been fundamental to steady build of global awareness about AMR at senior political levels. One example of their impact

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WHO AMR Survivor Task Force: Fireside Chat

Dear All, Back in 2022, I wrote a newsletter about the World Health Organization putting out a call to form a Task Force of AMR Survivors. The Task Force of Antimicrobial Resistance Survivors was established last October and its members have been busy ever since! There are currently 12 members, each serving 2 years, and they

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G20 Health Ministers: Let’s take action on AMR!

Dear All, As we’ve discussed previously (1 Oct 2024 newsletter), the HLM on AMR at UNGA 2024 is but one stop along the road to global action on AMR (acronymics: HLM on AMR at UNGA 2024 = High-Level Meeting on AMR at the 2024 UN General Assembly). In follow-up, we now have two AMR-related declarations from

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BARDA seeks deep insight on antibacterials near/beyond end-of-Phase 2

Dear All, BARDA has released a fascinating Sources Sought Notice (SSN) seeking data on antibacterials near, at, or beyond Phase 2. I’ve never seen one before, but an SSN is market research with which BARDA will “collect feedback from current and prospective antibiotic development partners” that will “serve as continued market research for potential future acquisitions

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NIAID RFA: Centers for Accelerating Phage Therapy (CAPT-CEP)

Dear All, I was delighted to learn today that NIAID has released RFA-AI-24-069, a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) soliciting applications to establish Centers for Accelerating Phage Therapy to Combat ESKAPE Pathogens (CAPT-CEP). The CAPT-CEPs will focus on developing preclinical assays, tools, and models for robust phage therapy R&D and advancing phage clinical research. Applications are due

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