Dear All, I wrote in the 1 Dec 2024 newsletter about the excellent paper by Baraldi et al. that introduced us to the 6 possible meaning of “lack of access.” Since that newsletter, a bit of back-and-forth has produced a UNSLAP as a pronounceable acronym for the 6 meanings: (U)nregistered, (N)ever registered (or, not registered),
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
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.
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
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
Dear All: The recent publication of an exceptionally good plain-language summary of the AMR problem in Rolling Stone (yes, you read that correctly!) prompts today’s 3-part journey into the way(s) that war contributes to the threat of resistant superbugs. We’ve summarized the story in outline form — please explore the references for further details. And
Dear All, I have just this weekend learned of a 3-part WHO webinar series on uses of phage. Two of the webinars have already been held; the 3rd is scheduled for 16 May. All are / will be available for post-webinar review. The links you need are below — in addition, a copy of the
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
Dear All, WHO have released an update through 31 Dec 2023 of their ongoing series of antibacterial pipeline reviews! Here are the links you need: The report: 2023 Antibacterial agents in clinical and preclinical development: an overview and analysis and a press release about the report. Infographics: Key facts and recommendations from the 2023 antibacterial agents in clinical
Dear All (and with thanks to Patricia Bradford for leading on this newsletter), Did you know you can access raw datasets of antimicrobial susceptibility surveillance data that have been generated by the pharmaceutical industry? Indeed such datasets exist and we’d like to ensure everyone is aware of their availability and potential! Background: The 20 Oct