Something Different – AMR.Solutions

The threat of mirror bacteria: Ongoing conversations (2025 wrap-up)

John Rex — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 16:17:38 +0000

Dear All,

Regular readers will be aware of the global conversation now happening around the threat arising from the potential to create viable organisms that are (at a molecular level) the mirror images of existing organisms. If this is new to you (or, if you’d like a refresh), here are the links you need:

18 Dec 2024 newsletter (“Mirror Bacteria: An AMR threat of unprecedented magnitude”). Please note that this newsletter is my catch-all location for additional data … new material are added throughout as addenda.
18 July 2025 newsletter (“The threat of mirror bacteria: Ongoing conversations – July 2025”)
5 Feb 2026 addendum: The 2025 Doomsday Clock announcement includes mirror life as part of its assessment of the current global threat level. As James Smith of the Mirror Biology Dialog Fund notes on X, “Unlike many other risks in the statement, this one is ahead of us … there’s a clear path to eliminating the risks from mirror life if we act early.“

During 2025, the Mirror Biology Dialogues Fund has worked steadily to move the conversation towards a global agreement that such research should not proceed. Their work is summarized in this blog post that reviews:

International conversations: Multiple conferences at locations around the globe
Acknowledgements of the risk of mirror life by governments, advisory groups, multilateral organizations, and funders
Coverage in the media

If not familiar to you, please do make time to study the ideas. Mirror life has the potential to become a threat to our global ecosystem and we must all follow / participate in the global conversation about it. You can keep your eye on MBDF’s forward calendar: A meeting on mirror life is planned for Singapore in 2026 and I’m sure others will follow.

Well done by the Mirror Biology team! THANK YOU!

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, the small meeting format of BEAM’s AMR Conference (March) and GAMRIC (September-October; formerly, the ESCMID-ASM conference series) creates excellent global networking. IDWeek (October) and ECCMID (April) are much larger meetings but also provide opportunities for networking with a substantial, focused audience via their Pipeline sessions. Hope to see you there!

3-4 Mar 2026 (Basel, Switzerland): The 10th AMR Conference. Sponsored by the BEAM Alliance, the 9th AMR Conference was an excellent meeting! A draft program has been posted and registration is now open. Please plan to attend!
17-21 April 2026 (Munich, Germany): ESCMID Global 2026, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. You can go here to register and view the preliminary program; the abstract submission window for 2026 will run 15 October to 26 Nov 2025. For those who would like a substantial opportunity to present a product to a large audience (see also adjacent note about IDWeek), I know that the meeting schedule will again include Pipeline Monday.
22-24 Sep 2026 (Lisbon, Portugal): The 2nd GAMRIC, the Global AMR Innovators Conference (London, UK). Formerly the ESCMID-ASM (or ASM-ESCMID depending on location) Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR, 2026 will be the 11th year for this series that is now under the joint sponsorship of CARB-X, ESCMID, BEAM Alliance, GARDP, LifeArc, Boston University, and AMR.Solutions. The ongoing series employs the successful format of prior meetings with a single-track meeting and substantial networking time. The 2025 meeting was a sell-out success! A written summary of the meeting is here and the video from the sessions is now available here. Registration will open March 2026; the abstract submission window will be 10-31 March 2026.
21-24 Oct 2026 (Washington, DC, USA): IDWeek 2026, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Details are not yet available but I would expect the program to continue to provide a substantial opportunity to present a product to a large audience (see also adjacent note about ESCMID) as well as opportunities to present at an IDWeek Pipeline Session.

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

21 Jan to 15 April 2026 (every Wednesday, 11a-12.30p MST / 1p-2.30p EST / 6-7.30p GMT / 7-8.30p CET): CAN-AMR-Net (Canadian Antimicrobial Resistance Network) is running a 12-lecture in-depth training course entitled “Antibiotic Drug Discovery: From AI-Enabled Discovery to Successful Commercialization Comprehensive Training.”
- The course will span the entirety of antibiotic development from early discovery to clinical, regulatory, and marketing stages. Go here for more details on the planned lectures and to register.
- To best enable interaction, seating is limited – please register promptly if you are interested. The course fee ranges from $100 to $500 CAD based on geography and background.
- CAN-AMR-Net is a Health Research Training Platform (HRTP) funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) from 2024 to 2030 and this course is part of their goal to train the next generation of researchers, practitioners, and leaders in the application of transdisciplinary methodologies and communication skills across One Health sectors to tackle the problem of AMR. For questions or suggestions on the course contents, contact Sameeh Salama at: ssalama@fedorapharma.com
28-30 Jan 2026 (Las Vegas, NV, USA): IDSA and ASM have announced a new US-based meeting series entitled IMARI (Interdisciplinary Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance and Innovation) that is described as a “forum for collaboration and exploration around the latest advances in antimicrobial drug discovery and development.” Go here for details and to register.
4-5 Feb 2026 (virtual, 8a-noon GMT on both days): Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Conference 2026, sponsored by BSAC and GARDP. Registration here: acc-conference.com. Abstracts are welcomed and can be submitted here; abstract deadline is Friday, 14 November 2025, 17:00 GMT.
5 Feb 2026 (in person, Alderley Park, UK): BioInfect, the annual AMR-focused networking conference delivered by BioNow. Go here for details and to register.
5-6 Feb 2026 (virtual or in person [FDA White Oak campus, 1.30-5p ET on 5 Feb; 8.30-4p ET on 6 Feb): FDA hosted public workshop #10 in their series entitled Advancing the Development of Pediatric Therapeutics (ADEPT). The goal is to discuss challenges seen in neonatal and rare disease product development and to identify ways to leverage rare disease product development tools and regulatory frameworks. Go here for more details and here to register. The challenges of pediatric development run deep … and we need to find ways to protect children by including them in research rather than excluding them. On this theme, you might enjoy reviewing the related 7 Apr 2021 newsletter (“Developing antibiotics for children: There are no easy answers”) and the 27 May 2022 newsletter (“Antibacterial guidance (including pediatrics): Parallel EMA+FDA updates”).
18-20 Feb 2026 (Sydney, Australia, in person): The “AMR 2026 Summit”, hosted by the Fleming Initiative and Australia’s Science Agency, CSIRO. This event (website) will spotlight evidence-informed One Health approaches, practical solutions to implementation barriers, and strategies for public engagement, education, and advocacy. Space is limited, so (and sort of like applying to attend a Gordon Conference), please register your interest to attend here.
3-4 Mar 2026 (Basel, Switzerland): The 10th AMR Conference sponsored by the BEAM Alliance. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
8-13 Mar 2026 (Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco, Italy): 2026 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) entitled “Antibacterials of Tomorrow to Combat the Global Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance.” A Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will be held the weekend before (7-8 Mar) for young doctoral and post-doctoral researchers. Space for the GRS and the GRC is limited; for details and to apply, go here for the GRC and here for the GRS.
17-21 April 2026 (Munich, Germany): ESCMID Global 2026, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. See Recurring Meetings list, above.
4-8 June 2026 (Washington, DC): ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. The meeting format is evolving and next year will combine 3 meetings (ASM Health, ASM Applied and Environmental Microbiology, and ASM Mechanism Discovery) into one event. Go here for details.
22-24 Sep 2026 GAMRIC (Lisbon, Portugal), the Global AMR Innovators Conference (London, UK; formerly the ESCMID-ASM Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR). See list of Top Recurring meetings, above..
10-18 Oct 2026 (Annecy, France, residential in-person program): ICARe (Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance) … and 2026 will be the 10th year for this program. Patrice Courvalin orchestrates content 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! Registration for 2026 will not open for some time; go here for more details and put a reminder in your calendar to check back in the Spring if you are interested.
21-24 Oct 2026 (Washington, DC, USA): IDWeek 2026. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
[NEW] 10-13 November 2026 (Madrid, Spain): The International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) has announced its 21st International Congress on Infectious Diseases (ICID). Register and view the preliminary program here. Note as well that the organizers have an open call for topic proposals with a 20 Jan 2026 deadline.

Self-paced courses, online training materials, and other reference materials:

OpenWHO: “Antimicrobial Resistance in the environment: key concepts and interventions.” Per the webpage for the course, it will teach you “…why addressing AMR in the environment is essential and gain insights into how action can be taken to prevent and control AMR in the environment at the national level.” This course builds on WHO’s 2024 Guidance on wastewater and solid waste management for manufacturing of antibiotics. For further reading, see also the 25 Sep 2023 newsletter entitled “Manufacturing underpins both access and stewardship: Cefiderocol as a case study” and the 28 Jan 2024 newsletter entitled “EMA Concept Paper: Guidance on manufacturing of phage products”.
GARDP’s REVIVE website provides an encyclopedia covering a range of R&D terms, recordings of prior GARDP webinars, a variety of viewpoint articles, and more! Check it out!
GARDP’s https://antibioticdb.com/ is an open-access database of antibacterial agents.
The CARB-X website provides a range of recordings from its webinars, bootcamps, and more. A bit of browsing would be time well spent!
British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy offers an eLearning section: Education – The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

Current funding opportunities

EU OHAMR (One Health AMR) has opened its first call with a request for consortia to propose projects on (i) combination therapies, (ii) ways to improve adherence to protocols, and (iii) ways to assess/inform regarding the impact of antimicrobials used in veterinary medicine and food agriculture. The window for pre-proposals runs 18 Nov 2025 to 2 Feb 2026. See also the 22 Oct 2025 newsletter about the call.
The Horizon Europe Work Programme 2026-2027 includes at least 3 calls of interest within its Cluster 1 — see the list below. The application window starts 10 Feb 2026 and closes on 16 Apr 2026. See also the 12 Dec 2025 newsletter about the call. Note as well that there calls for agents to prevent and/or treat viral infections.
- HORIZON-HLTH-2027-01-DISEASE-08: Development of innovative antimicrobials against pathogens resistant to antimicrobials
- HORIZON-HLTH-2027-02-IND-02: Portable point-of-care diagnostics
- HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-DISEASE-03:Advancing research on the prevention, diagnosis, and management of post-infection long-term conditions.
ENABLE-2 has continuously open calls for both its Hit-to-Lead program as well as its Hit Identification/Validation incubator. Applicants must be academics and non-profits in Europe due to restrictions from the funders. Applications are evaluated in cycles … see the website for details on current timing for reviews.
BARDA’s long-running BAA (Broad Agency Announcement) for medical countermeasures (MCMs) for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases is now BAA-23-100-SOL-00004 and offers support for both antibacterial and antifungal agents (as well as antivirals, antitoxins, diagnostics, and more). Note especially these Areas of Interest: Area 3.1 (MDR Bacteria and Biothreat Pathogens), Area 3.2 (MDR Fungal Infections), and Area 7.2 (Antibiotic Resistance Diagnostics for Priority Bacterial Pathogens). Although prior BAAs used a rolling cycle of 4 deadlines/year, the updated BAA released 26 Sep 2023 has a 5-year application period that ends 25 Sep 2028 and is open to applicants regardless of location: BARDA seeks the best science from anywhere in the world! See also this newsletter for further comments on the BAA and its areas of interest.
HERA Invest was launched August 2023 with €100 million to support innovative EU-based SMEs in the early and late phases of clinical trials. Part of the InvestEU program supporting sustainable investment, innovation, and job creation in Europe, HERA Invest is open for application to companies developing medical countermeasures that address one of the following cross-border health threats: (i) Pathogens with pandemic or epidemic potential, (ii) Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats originating from accidental or deliberate release, and (iii) Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Non-dilutive venture loans covering up to 50% of investment costs are available. A closing date is not posted insofar as I can see — applications are accepted on a rolling basis; go here for more details.
The AMR Action Fund is open on an ongoing basis to proposals for funding of Phase 2 / Phase 3 antibacterial therapeutics. Per its charter, the fund prioritizes investment in treatments that address a pathogen prioritized by the WHO, the CDC and/or other public health entities that: (i) are novel (e.g., absence of known cross-resistance, novel targets, new chemical classes, or new mechanisms of action); and/or (ii) have significant differentiated clinical utility (e.g., differentiated innovation that provides clinical value versus standard of care to prescribers and patients, such as safety/tolerability, oral formulation, different spectrum of activity); and (iii) reduce patient mortality. It is also expected that such agents would have the potential to strongly address the likely requirements for delinked Pull incentives such as the UK (NHS England) subscription pilot and the PASTEUR Act in the US. Submit queries to contact@amractionfund.com.
INCATE (Incubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe) is an early-stage funding vehicle supporting innovation vs. drug-resistant bacterial infections. The fund provides advice, community, and non-dilutive funding (€10k in Stage I and up to €250k in Stage II) to support early-stage ventures in creating the evidence and building the team needed to get next-level funding. Details and contacts on their website (https://www.incate.net/).
CARB-X had an open call (its 2nd call for 2025) that ran 1-12 Dec 2025. I am sure there will be calls in 2026 and I’ll announce them when they are published.
These things aren’t sources of funds but would help you develop funding applications
- The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes the global clinical development pipeline, incentives for AMR R&D, and investors/investments in AMR R&D.
- Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Innovation in Australia is an actively updated summary that covers Australia’s AMR research and patent landscape. It is provided via collaboration between The Lens (an ambitious project seeking to discover, analyse, and map global innovation knowledge) and CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research). Lots to explore here!
- Diagnostic developers would find valuable guidance in this 6-part series on in vitro diagnostic (IVD) development. Sponsored by CARB-X, C-CAMP, and FIND, it pulls together real-life insights into a succinct set of tutorials.
In addition to the lists provided by the Global AMR R&D Hub, you might also be interested in my most current lists of R&D incentives (link) and priority pathogens (link).

Fireside Chat with Lynn Silver! Deep Dive on Drug Discovery: Chemical Vs. Drugs (Part 5)

John Rex — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 18:12:36 +0000

Note: For those of you with an interest in developing bacterial vaccines, the results of Pfizer’s failed STRIVE S. aureus vaccine have now appeared in print along with an excellent editorial commentary. Deep sigh on this one — please see the updated prior newsletter for the links and the full story.

This newsletter is part of a series — here are the links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and (this one is Part 5). You might also enjoy the discussion of AI-supported discovery in this May 2026 video from Nature.

Dear All,

Today we have yet another discussion about AI and drug discovery but this one is with a twist. To get you up to speed before we begin, here are the links you’ll need:

The first paper: Stokes et al., “A Deep Learning Approach to Antibiotic Discovery,” Cell (2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.01.021.
- 21 Feb 2020 newsletter: “Chemicals Vs. Drugs (Part 1): The End Of Bacitracin / The Buzz Around Halicin”
- 24 Feb 2020 newsletter: “Chemical Vs. Drugs (Part 2): How Do You Discriminate? / More On Halicin”
- 25 Feb 2020 newsletter: “Chemicals Vs. Drugs (Part 3): XKCD Has The Final Word”
The new paper: Liu et al. “Deep learning-guided discovery of an antibiotic targeting Acinetobacter baumannii.” Nat Chem Biol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-023-01349-8
- This paper is discussed in the 30 May 2023 newsletter: “AI-Based Drug Discovery: Chemical Vs. Drugs (Part 4)”
- [4 Feb 2024 addendum]: The group published a further paper on 20 Dec 2023: Wong et al. Discovery of a structural class of antibiotics with explainable deep learning. Nature 626, 177–185 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06887-8.

After sending out the Part 4 newsletter in May, the legendary Lynn Silver reached out to share her thoughts and it quickly became very clear that we needed to do a Fireside Chat. It has taken a while to get it done (summer time … hope you also found an opportunity to rest a bit), but now we’re done.

Who is Lynn Silver? Well, you can check out video in which we cover such diverse topics as:

AI-based discovery (of course)
Natural products, including NCI’s library and its use of whole-cell screens
The need to avoid being too rational as you search for staring points
The slippery slope of single-gene targets … and the idea of combinations vs. such targets
What does the future hold? How optimistic or pessimistic should we be about the pipeline!
And if you look in the footnotes for the video, you’ll even find a slide deck summarizing Lynn’s thoughts on the Challenges in Novel Antibacterial Drug Discovery

It was a pleasure to have a chance to meditate with Lynn … and I hope you enjoy the video! 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.

Current funding opportunities (most current list is here)

HERA Invest was launched August 2023 with €100 million to support innovative EU-based SMEs in the early and late phases of clinical trials. Part of the InvestEU program supporting sustainable investment, innovation, and job creation in Europe, HERA Invest is open for application to companies developing medical countermeasures that address one of the following cross-border health threats: (i) Pathogens with pandemic or epidemic potential, (ii) Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats originating from accidental or deliberate release, and (iii) Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Non-dilutive venture loans covering up to 50% of investment costs are available. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis; go here for all the details.
The ENABLE-2 consortium has announced a call to support hit-to-lead compound development by researchers at publicly-funded European universities. The call is focused on molecules with the potential to be direct-acting therapies for one or more of the following priority pathogens: ESBL-producing/carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (E. coli, K. pneumoniae), P. aeruginosa, A. baumannii, methicillin-resistant S. aureus, or vancomycin-resistant E. faecium. The Call is open continuously, applications are reviewed at intervals, and funding is non-dilutive. Expressions of interest received before 30 Sep 2023 would be considered in November 2023. Applications received after this date will be evaluated in the spring of 2024 (date to be decided). Go to https://www.ilk.uu.se/enable2/apply/ for further details.
The AMR Action Fund is now open to proposals for funding of Phase 2 / Phase 3 antibacterial therapeutics. Per its charter, the fund prioritizes investment in treatments that address a pathogen prioritized by the WHO, the CDC and/or other public health entities that: (i) are novel (e.g., absence of known cross-resistance, novel targets, new chemical classes, or new mechanisms of action); and/or (ii) have significant differentiated clinical utility (e.g., differentiated innovation that provides clinical value versus standard of care to prescribers and patients, such as safety/tolerability, oral formulation, different spectrum of activity); and (iii) reduce patient mortality. It is also expected that such agents would have the potential to strongly address the likely requirements for delinked Pull incentives such as the UK (NHS England) subscription pilot and the PASTEUR Act in the US. Submit queries to contact@amractionfund.com.
BARDA’s long-running BAA-18-100-SOL-00003 offers support for both antibacterial and antifungal agents. This BAA has offered 4 deadlines/year since 2018 … check the most current amendment for details.
INCATE (Incubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe) is an early-stage funding vehicle supporting innovation vs. drug-resistant bacterial infections. The fund provides advice, community, and non-dilutive funding (€10k in Stage I and up to €250k in Stage II) to support early-stage ventures in creating the evidence and building the team needed to get next-level funding. Details and contacts on their website (https://www.incate.net/).
These things aren’t sources of funds but would help you develop funding applications
- AiCuris’ AiCubator offers incubator support to very early stage projects. Read more about it here.
- The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes the global clinical development pipeline, incentives for AMR R&D, and investors/investments in AMR R&D.
- Diagnostic developers would find valuable guidance in this 6-part series on in vitro diagnostic (IVD) development. Sponsored by CARB-X, C-CAMP, and FIND, it pulls together real-life insights into a succinct set of tutorials.
In addition to the lists provided by the Global AMR R&D Hub, you might also be interested in my 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):

18 Sep 2023 (virtual, 3-4p CET): Jointly hosted by the US CDC and the WHO, a webinar entitled “Fungal Diseases – Global Challenges and Opportunities” will kick-start CDC’s Fungal Disease Awareness Week (FDAW). The goal of the webinar is to provide an in-depth perspective on fungal diseases and discuss challenges related to antifungal resistance. Go here to register; the full program for the week can be seen at the FDAW webpage.
19-22 Sep 2023 (Boston, USA): ASM-ESCMID Joint Conference on Drug Development to Meet the Challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance. This is an excellent development focused meeting … highly recommended! Go here for details and to register.
21 Sep 2023 (New York City, USA, in person 6.30-8.00p ET): In partnership with the governments of the UK and Nigeria, the Center for Global Development (CGD) will launch its final report from a CGD working group studying possible purchasing systems that will improve access, stewardship, and innovation for antimicrobials in LMICs at an event entitled “A Path Towards Affordable and Effective Antimicrobials: Six Recommendations to Improve Antimicrobial Innovation, Access, and Stewardship,” Go here for more details and to register: the event will be held at the Sixth Floor Loft (873 Broadway, Sixth Floor, New York, NY 10003). The discussion will focus on the political and operational steps needed to ensure access to and stewardship of affordable and effective antimicrobials — and you can readily see how this is is step towards building consensus around priorities for the discussion of next year’s high-level meeting (HLM) at UNGA 2024.
[NEW] 27 Sep 2023 (virtual, 10a-11a EST): Milken Institute webinar entitled “What’s Next for the UK’s Subscription Model in the Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance”. Go here to register.
[NEW] 4 Oct 2023 (Museum of Science, Boston, MA; in person, 11.30a-2.30p ET): Co-sponsored by the Boston’s Museum of Science and the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave (Netherlands), you can attend a luncheon and panel discussion entitled “Celebrating 300 Years of Innovation and Beyond: How van Leeuwenhoek’s Discovery of the Microworld Sparked a Medical Revolution, with a Focus on Antimicrobial Resistance.” Go here for details and to register. I knew about Boston’s MOS but did not know about the exceptional collection of the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave which seeks to “… show what science is all about: curiosity, guts, creativity and perseverance.” Fascinating!
7-15 Oct 2023 (residential, Annecy, France): ICARe, the Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance. Now in its 7th year, this course is a deep-dive into the world of antibiotic development. Intense, rigorous, and HIGHLY recommended. Seats are always limited … apply sooner rather than later! Go here for details.
11-15 Oct 2023 (Boston, USA): IDWeek 2023, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Go here for details and to register.
20-23 Oct 2023 (Athens, Greece): 11th TIMM (Trends in Medical Mycology). Go here for details.
6-7 Feb 2024 (online): Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Conference. This is an annual, free of charge conference that is co-organized by GARDP and the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC). Details to follow — for now, just mark your calendar.
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.
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.

AI-based drug discovery: Chemical vs. drugs (Part 4)

John Rex — Tue, 30 May 2023 16:50:34 +0000

This newsletter is part of a series — here are the links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, (this one is Part 4), and Part 5. You might also enjoy the discussion of AI-supported discovery in this May 2026 video from Nature.

Dear All,

We had fun in Feb 2020 discussing whether an antibacterial compound discovered using machine learning was a drug or just a chemical. Building on that conversation, the lab that wrote the original report has a new paper about identification of a narrow-spectrum compound with activity vs. Acinetobacter baumannii. Here are the links you’ll need:

The first paper: Stokes et al., “A Deep Learning Approach to Antibiotic Discovery,” Cell (2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.01.021.
- 21 Feb 2020 newsletter: “Chemicals Vs. Drugs (Part 1): The End Of Bacitracin / The Buzz Around Halicin”
- 24 Feb 2020 newsletter: “Chemical Vs. Drugs (Part 2): How Do You Discriminate? / More On Halicin”
- 25 Feb 2020 newsletter: “Chemicals Vs. Drugs (Part 3): XKCD Has The Final Word”
The new paper: Liu et al. “Deep learning-guided discovery of an antibiotic targeting Acinetobacter baumannii.” Nat Chem Biol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-023-01349-8.
[4 Feb 2024 addendum]: The group published a further paper on 20 Dec 2023: Wong et al. Discovery of a structural class of antibiotics with explainable deep learning. Nature 626, 177–185 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06887-8.

As a brief recap, that first paper described halicin (homage to the computer HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey) as a candidate antibacterial. As discussed at the time, available data suggested that halicin was too toxic to be a therapeutic drug.

As we discussed at length in 2020, it’s easy to kill bacteria (steam, fire, and bleach all work) and XKCD (newsletter #3) reminded us that “When you see a claim that a common drug or vitamin ‘kills cancer cells in a petri dish,’ keep in mind that so does a handgun.”

The hard part is selective killing and this has been a challenge since the dawn of the antibiotic era. It was a huge step forward when Ehrlich discovered the toxic arsenicals for syphilis (salvarsan), but this was a VERY toxic therapy (Aside: Please check out the constantly updated “Movies To Discover Antibiotics By!” newsletter and see the discussion of “Out of Africa” for more on the story or salvarsan.) Similarly, the equally toxic arsenical melarsoprol was found useful for Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT), aka Sleeping Sickness. Penicillin was the safe, easy therapy that replaced salvarsan for syphilis many decades ago, but it was not until recently that fexinidazole did the same for HAT.

But, the idea that machine-based processes might open up new chemical space for discovery of a true antibiotic was (and remains) fascinating. To that end, the paper #2 discusses a compound having narrow-spectrum activity vs. Acinetobacter baumanii. Given the name abaucin, it was identified by a neural network-based approach. It’s actually an old compound (formerly RS102895) that is also known to be an inhibitor of the CCR2 chemokine receptor.

What’s intriguing here is that there are signs of selective antibacterial activity — it is active at 2 mg/L vs. A. baumannii but in active at > 128 mg/L vs. E. coli, P. aeruginosa, and S. aureus. Even better, the authors found a likely mechanism of action (disruption of lipoprotein trafficking). It promoted wound healing when used topically in an artificial wound model and also has a history of having been been given by mouth in a murine model of kidney disease (see cite #20).

That noted, does this make it a drug or even a candidate drug? “No, not yet,” is definitely the answer. Specifically, there are many obvious gaps in terms of knowledge of systemic pharmacology, consequences of chemokine inhibition, and so forth that would need to be addressed before this compound would move beyond the hit stage. For more on the type of work needed, see the Instructions to Authors for Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy for a checklist.

But, it is fascinating to see the progress made by this group in expanding their machine-based discovery tools. And, they are clearly not done. As they write in their conclusions, “In the context of antibiotic drug discovery specifically, future models could be trained on (1) growth inhibition of a pathogen of interest and (2) mammalian cell toxicity” and “forthcoming predictive models can be applied to wide regions of unexplored chemical space, with more confidence that prioritized molecules will satisfy multiple properties that are required of new clinical antibiotics.”

Indeed, indeed .. and wouldn’t it be cool to see the kind of (nearly) Star Trek-like instant creation of new therapies become a real thing? Perhaps one day artificial intelligence can come up with creative solutions to save the day like in in Next Generation’s “Quality of Life” or even become the ultimate medical computer program personified like Voyager’s The Doctor!

We were so very fortunate with the pace of creation of new tools for COVID-19 … to have something similar for bacteria would be extraordinary. The clinical trials would still need to be done, but having a candidate compound in hand is obviously a huge head start!

All best wishes, –jr

Current funding opportunities (most current list is here)

The AMR Action Fund is now open to proposals for funding of Phase 2 / Phase 3 antibacterial therapeutics. Per its charter, the fund prioritizes investment in treatments that address a pathogen prioritized by the WHO, the CDC and/or other public health entities that: (i) are novel (e.g., absence of known cross-resistance, novel targets, new chemical classes, or new mechanisms of action); and/or (ii) have significant differentiated clinical utility (e.g., differentiated innovation that provides clinical value versus standard of care to prescribers and patients, such as safety/tolerability, oral formulation, different spectrum of activity); and (iii) reduce patient mortality. It is also expected that such agents would have the potential to strongly address the likely requirements for delinked Pull incentives such as the UK (NHS England) subscription pilot and the PASTEUR Act in the US. Submit queries to contact@amractionfund.com.
BARDA’s long-running BAA-18-100-SOL-00003 offers support for both antibacterial and antifungal agents. This BAA has offered 4 deadlines/year since 2018 … check the most current amendment for details.
INCATE (Incubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe) is an early-stage funding vehicle supporting innovation vs. drug-resistant bacterial infections. The fund provides advice, community, and non-dilutive funding (€10k in Stage I and up to €250k in Stage II) to support early-stage ventures in creating the evidence and building the team needed to get next-level funding. Details and contacts on their website (https://www.incate.net/).
These things aren’t sources of funds but would help you develop funding applications
- AiCuris’ AiCubator offers incubator support to very early stage projects. Read more about it here.
- The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes the global clinical development pipeline, incentives for AMR R&D, and investors/investments in AMR R&D.
- Diagnostic developers would find valuable guidance in this 6-part series on in vitro diagnostic (IVD) development. Sponsored by CARB-X, C-CAMP, and FIND, it pulls together real-life insights into a succinct set of tutorials.
In addition to the lists provided by the Global AMR R&D Hub, you might also be interested in my 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):

6 Jun 2023 (virtual, 2.30-4p BST, 9.30-11.00a EDT): Sponsored by the AMR Industry Alliance, this webinar will be the launch event for the upcoming global Antimicrobial Resistance Certification process that builds on AMRAI’s June 2022 Antibiotic Manufacturing Standard for antibiotic discharge targets. Administered by the British Standards Institute (BSI), this certification process will provide a mechanism for antibiotic manufacturers to demonstrate compliance with the Antibiotic Manufacturing Standard. Go here to register.
[NEW] 7 June 2023 (virtual, 13.30-15.00 CEST): GARDP-sponsored webinar entitled “Project management in antimicrobial R&D. Go here to register.
10 Jun 2023 (Virtual, 3-5.30p India Standard Time): Sponsored by the AMR Declaration Trust, a webinar entitled “Engaging the Pharmaceutical Industry in Joint Efforts to Tackle Antimicrobial Resistance.” Thinking globally and acting locally, this webinar will be a conversation about the global pipeline with a focus on ideas for action in India. Go here to register.
3-5 Jul 2023 (Tours, France): 9th Symposium on Antimicrobial Resistance in Animals and the Environment (ARAE). Sponsored by INRAE (French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment, itself a merger of merger of INRA, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, and IRSTEA, the French National Research Institute of Science and Technology for the Environment and Agriculture), this conference has been running since 2005. Go here for details.
[NEW] 4-6 Aug 2023 (Bangkok, Thailand): The regional Medical Mycology Training Network Conference by ISHAM’s Asia Fungal Working Group is set to feature both hands-on workshops and clinical sessions for all those managing and working with invasive fungal infections. Go here for details.
19-22 Sep 2023 (Boston, USA): ASM-ESCMID Joint Conference on Drug Development to Meet the Challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance. This is an excellent development focused meeting … highly recommended! Go here for details and to register.
[I am told there a few slots left … get your application in ASAP!] 7-15 Oct 2023 (residential, Annecy, France): ICARe, the Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance. Now in its 7th year, this course is a deep-dive into the world of antibiotic development. Intense, rigorous, and HIGHLY recommended. Seats are always limited … apply sooner rather than later! Go here for details … final deadline for applications is 21 June 2023!
[PIPELINE SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED to 31 MAY] 11-15 Oct 2023 (Boston, USA): IDWeek 2023, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Go here for details and to register. Also note that there is a call for IDWeek Pipeline submissions with a deadline of 31 May 2023: “Submit Your Novel Antimicrobial Agents or Diagnostic Technologies: Companies are invited to submit antimicrobials that are in preclinical stages of development (Phase II and III preferred) or were approved after January 2023 for a pipeline session at IDWeek that will include antibacterials, antifungals and antivirals (excluding COVID-19 and HIV). Companies developing novel diagnostic technologies with a minimum of some preliminary proof of concept data may submit as well.”
20-23 Oct 2023 (Athens, Greece): 11th TIMM (Trends in Medical Mycology). Go here for details.
[NEW] 6-7 Feb 2024 (online): Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Conference. This is an annual, free of charge conference that is co-organized by GARDP and the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC). Details to follow — for now, just mark your calendar.
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.

Great AMR-focused podcast series on BBC Discovery!

John Rex — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 20:59:00 +0000

Dear All,

The BBC’s Roland Pease has put together a 3-part podcast series on AMR! Each episode is about 30 minutes, perfect for bite-sized listening. Here is my quick sketch of the topics and voices for each episode:

Episode 1: From the discovery of penicillin to the rise of resistance
- Christoph Tang (Oxford)
- Kevin Outterson (Boston University, CARB-X)
- David Paterson (ADVANCE-ID, Singapore)
- Willem van Schaik (U Birmingham)
- Kirsty Sands and Shonnette Premchand-Branker (Ineos Oxford Institute)
- Liz Wellington & Greg Amos (U Warwick)
Episode 2: The challenges of discovery
- Steven Brickner (Discoverer of Linezolid)
- Leah Roberts (U Queensland)
- Shahriar Mobashery (Notre Dame)
- Alistair Farley (Ineos Oxford Institute)
- Lona Alkhalaf (U Warwick)
- James Collins (MIT)
- Kevin Outterson (Boston University, CARB-X)
Episode 3: Solving the puzzle of the paradoxical (and brutal) economics of antibiotics
- Kenneth Hillan (formerly with Achaogen)
- John Rex (AMR.Solutions)
- Kevin Outterson (Boston University, CARB-X)
- Mark Gitzinger (BEAM Alliance, Bioversys)
- Florence Sejourne (BEAM Alliance, Aurobac)
- Jon Moulton (Better Capital, a private equity firm)
- Evan Loh (Paratek)
- Laurenz Kellenberger (Basilea)
- Seamus O’Brien (GARDP)
- Anand Anandkumar (Bugworks)

Great stuff here … please share! Well done, Roland! Thank you!

Happy listening! 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.

17-21 April 2026 (Munich, Germany): ESCMID Global 2026, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. You can go here to register and view the preliminary program; the abstract submission window for 2026 will run 15 October to 26 Nov 2025. For those who would like a substantial opportunity to present a product to a large audience (see also adjacent note about IDWeek), I know that the meeting schedule will again include Pipeline Monday.
[PRELIMINARY PROGRAM; TRAVEL GRANTS; ABSTRACT DEADLINE is Fri 10 Apr at noon CET] 22-24 Sep 2026 (Lisbon, Portugal): The 2nd GAMRIC, the Global AMR Innovators Conference (London, UK). Formerly the ESCMID-ASM (or ASM-ESCMID depending on location) Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR, 2026 will be the 11th year for this series that is now under the joint sponsorship of CARB-X, ESCMID, BEAM Alliance, GARDP, LifeArc, Boston University, and AMR.Solutions. The ongoing series employs the successful format of prior meetings with a single-track meeting and substantial networking time. The 2025 meeting was a sell-out success! A written summary of the 2025 meeting is here and the videos from the sessions are now available here. Registration for the 2026 meeting is now open and you can view the preliminary program here. Abstract submissions are open through Fri 10 Apr at noon CET; note as well that travel grants are available for attendees with accepted abstracts. A late-breaker window be announced for July.
21-24 Oct 2026 (Washington, DC, USA): IDWeek 2026, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Details are not yet available but I would expect the program to continue to provide a substantial opportunity to present a product to a large audience (see also adjacent note about ESCMID) as well as opportunities to present at an IDWeek Pipeline Session.
23-24 Mar 2027 (Basel, Switzerland): The 10th AMR Conference (3-4 Mar 2026) is now over and offered a rich program that included a 10-year retrospective (we’ve done a lot!), regulatory updates, discussions of how to pursue development in China, and much more … in addition to being a superb opportunity for networking! I am told the session videos will soon be available on the conference website. Mark your calendars for next year’s 11th AMR Conference!

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

17-21 April 2026 (Munich, Germany): ESCMID Global 2026, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. See Recurring Meetings list, above.
[NEW] 28 Apr 2026 (9:30-11:00 CET, virtual): REVIVE (GARDP)-sponsored webinar: “Natural product-inspired antibiotics: Successes and future prospects.” Go here for details and to register.
4-8 June 2026 (Washington, DC): ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. The meeting format is evolving and next year will combine 3 meetings (ASM Health, ASM Applied and Environmental Microbiology, and ASM Mechanism Discovery) into one event. Go here for details.
11-12 Jun 2026 (Washington, DC): The Second Annual Unite for Sepsis Symposium, presented by the Sepsis Alliance. The event seeks to accelerate progress in sepsis research and care. Go here for details and to register.
22-24 Sep 2026 GAMRIC (Lisbon, Portugal), the Global AMR Innovators Conference (London, UK; formerly the ESCMID-ASM Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR). See list of Top Recurring meetings, above..
10-18 Oct 2026 (Annecy, France, residential in-person program): ICARe (Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance) … and 2026 will be the 10th year for this program. Patrice Courvalin orchestrates content 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! Registration for 2026 will be during March 16–July 3, 2026. You can go here for more details and you should put a reminder in your calendar register on / after 16 March.
21-24 Oct 2026 (Washington, DC, USA): IDWeek 2026. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
10-13 November 2026 (Madrid, Spain): The International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) has announced its 21st International Congress on Infectious Diseases (ICID). Register and view the preliminary program here (Early bird closes 30 July 2026); abstract deadline is 28 April 2026.
23-24 Mar 2027 (Basel, Switzerland): The 11th AMR Conference sponsored by the BEAM Alliance. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
??? Mar 2028 (yes, that’s 2028, with location TBD): The 2028 Gordon Research Conference (GRC, https://www.grc.org/) entitled “Antibacterials of Tomorrow to Combat the Global Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance” and its related Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) for young doctoral and post-doctoral researchers will be sometime in March 2028. The organizers hope to coordinate dates and location with the 2028 BEAM-AMR meeting. Details to follow — mark your calendar!

Self-paced courses, online training materials, and other reference materials:

OpenWHO: “Antimicrobial Resistance in the environment: key concepts and interventions.” Per the webpage for the course, it will teach you “…why addressing AMR in the environment is essential and gain insights into how action can be taken to prevent and control AMR in the environment at the national level.” This course builds on WHO’s 2024 Guidance on wastewater and solid waste management for manufacturing of antibiotics. For further reading, see also the 25 Sep 2023 newsletter entitled “Manufacturing underpins both access and stewardship: Cefiderocol as a case study” and the 28 Jan 2024 newsletter entitled “EMA Concept Paper: Guidance on manufacturing of phage products”.
GARDP’s REVIVE website provides an encyclopedia covering a range of R&D terms, recordings of prior GARDP webinars, a variety of viewpoint articles, and more! Check it out!
GARDP’s https://antibioticdb.com/ is an open-access database of antibacterial agents.
The CARB-X website provides a range of recordings from its webinars, bootcamps, and more. A bit of browsing would be time well spent!
British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy offers an eLearning section: Education – The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

Current funding opportunities

CARB-X have announced a funding round that will be open 8-22 April 2026 (there will also be a round during 4Q 2026). There are 4 funding themes as below. Informational webinars have been announced for 9 and 10 April 2026.
- Direct-acting therapeutics for infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria
- Novel Chemistry for AMR Challenge – target-based therapeutics.
- Non-vaccine approaches to prevent neonatal sepsis
- Diagnostics for neonatal sepsis
The Horizon Europe Work Programme 2026-2027 includes at least 3 calls of interest within its Cluster 1 — see the list below. The application window starts 10 Feb 2026 and closes on 16 Apr 2026. See also the 12 Dec 2025 newsletter about the call. Note as well that there calls for agents to prevent and/or treat viral infections.
- HORIZON-HLTH-2027-01-DISEASE-08: Development of innovative antimicrobials against pathogens resistant to antimicrobials
- HORIZON-HLTH-2027-02-IND-02: Portable point-of-care diagnostics
- HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-DISEASE-03:Advancing research on the prevention, diagnosis, and management of post-infection long-term conditions.
ENABLE-2 has continuously open calls for both its Hit-to-Lead program as well as its Hit Identification/Validation incubator. Applicants must be academics and non-profits in Europe due to restrictions from the funders. Applications are evaluated in cycles … see the website for details on current timing for reviews.
BARDA’s long-running BAA (Broad Agency Announcement) for medical countermeasures (MCMs) for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases is now BAA-23-100-SOL-00004 and offers support for both antibacterial and antifungal agents (as well as antivirals, antitoxins, diagnostics, and more). Note especially these Areas of Interest: Area 3.1 (MDR Bacteria and Biothreat Pathogens), Area 3.2 (MDR Fungal Infections), and Area 7.2 (Antibiotic Resistance Diagnostics for Priority Bacterial Pathogens). Although prior BAAs used a rolling cycle of 4 deadlines/year, the updated BAA released 26 Sep 2023 has a 5-year application period that ends 25 Sep 2028 and is open to applicants regardless of location: BARDA seeks the best science from anywhere in the world! See also this newsletter for further comments on the BAA and its areas of interest.
HERA Invest was launched August 2023 with €100 million to support innovative EU-based SMEs in the early and late phases of clinical trials. Part of the InvestEU program supporting sustainable investment, innovation, and job creation in Europe, HERA Invest is open for application to companies developing medical countermeasures that address one of the following cross-border health threats: (i) Pathogens with pandemic or epidemic potential, (ii) Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats originating from accidental or deliberate release, and (iii) Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Non-dilutive venture loans covering up to 50% of investment costs are available. A closing date is not posted insofar as I can see — applications are accepted on a rolling basis; go here for more details.
The AMR Action Fund is open on an ongoing basis to proposals for funding of Phase 2 / Phase 3 antibacterial therapeutics. Per its charter, the fund prioritizes investment in treatments that address a pathogen prioritized by the WHO, the CDC and/or other public health entities that: (i) are novel (e.g., absence of known cross-resistance, novel targets, new chemical classes, or new mechanisms of action); and/or (ii) have significant differentiated clinical utility (e.g., differentiated innovation that provides clinical value versus standard of care to prescribers and patients, such as safety/tolerability, oral formulation, different spectrum of activity); and (iii) reduce patient mortality. It is also expected that such agents would have the potential to strongly address the likely requirements for delinked Pull incentives such as the UK (NHS England) subscription pilot and the PASTEUR Act in the US. Submit queries to contact@amractionfund.com.
INCATE (Incubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe) is an early-stage funding vehicle supporting innovation vs. drug-resistant bacterial infections. The fund provides advice, community, and non-dilutive funding (€10k in Stage I and up to €250k in Stage II) to support early-stage ventures in creating the evidence and building the team needed to get next-level funding. Details and contacts on their website (https://www.incate.net/).
These things aren’t sources of funds but would help you develop funding applications
- The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes the global clinical development pipeline, incentives for AMR R&D, and investors/investments in AMR R&D. See also the 7 Feb 2026 newsletter (“The global funding pipeline, 2017-2023: A review”) about an excellent deep dive by the Hub team into patterns of funding over time.
- Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Innovation in Australia is an actively updated summary that covers Australia’s AMR research and patent landscape. It is provided via collaboration between The Lens (an ambitious project seeking to discover, analyse, and map global innovation knowledge) and CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research). Lots to explore here!
- Diagnostic developers would find valuable guidance in this 6-part series on in vitro diagnostic (IVD) development. Sponsored by CARB-X, C-CAMP, and FIND, it pulls together real-life insights into a succinct set of tutorials.
In addition to the lists provided by the Global AMR R&D Hub, you might also be interested in my most current lists of R&D incentives (link) and priority pathogens (link).

The language of AMR: The power of metaphor

John Rex — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:46:22 +0000

Dear All,

Acronyms and jargon fill our daily scientific lives but can be impenetrable to newcomers. A great example is the title of the 20 Feb 2020 newsletter: “Language Matters: CRE vs. CPE; SDD vs. I; and MDR, XDR, PDR, UDR vs. DTR.” Total gobbledygook unless you’ve worked in the area for a while!

On the other hand, we’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of the idea that “Antibiotics are the Fire Extinguishers of Medicine,” a simple metaphor that takes one naturally into STEDI attributes of antibiotics as well as the related STRIDES values of diagnostics (newsletters from 14 Apr 2020 and 18 June 2025, respectively … and with apologies for the acronyms).

But, does that metaphor translate universally? And, it’s a very specific and focused message about what an antibiotic does. However, it neither explains the idea of AMR nor gives guidance on the best use of antibiotics.

So, now let’s go to the paper that provoked this newsletter. You may recall the 13 June 2024 newsletter (“The (confusing!) language of AMR: ChatGPT tries to help!”) in which we learned of the work of the oustanding work of Eva Krockow (Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Leicester). When I heard her speak in 2024, she shared her initial work on the language of AMR. Please do go (re)read that newsletter for discussions both of why AMR is a terrible acronym (but we’re stuck with it) and why translating “antibiotic stewardship” may require > 10 words in some languages!

Since then, she has gone on to do a deep study of the idea of finding metaphors that would be good tools for communicating the concepts related to AMR. Here are the papers you need to follow the next parts of the discussion:

Krockow EM, Jones M, Mkumbuzi S, Mendelson M, Tarrant C, Froud R, et al. Developing public health risk messages about antibiotic resistance using metaphors: an international co-design and e-Delphi consensus study. Scientific Reports. 2026;16(1):9788. DOI:10.1038/s41598-026-40577-5.
Krockow EM, Jones M, Tarrant C, Mendelson M, & Flusberg SJ. Risk communication about antimicrobial resistance: a content analysis of metaphor use in global public discourse. Journal of Risk Research, 2024;27(12): 1605-1622. DOI: 10.1080/13669877.2025.2485044
Thibodeau PH and Boroditsky L. Metaphors We Think With: The Role of Metaphor in Reasoning. PLoS ONE 6(2): e16782. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0016782.
22 May 2026 addendum: A SMART Toolkit (Strategic Metaphors for Antibiotic Resistance) that provides ready-made metaphor posters, templates, and more is available at https://smart.le.ac.uk/.

The premise of the project was that metaphors are powerful ways to quickly and clearly explain new concepts. Linking a new idea to a known concept can be very vivid: vaccines strengthen your body’s defenses against infection in the same way working out strengthens your muscles.

To leverage this insight, Krockow et al. conducted an international project in which they first generated 190 possible metaphors in workshops conducted in South Africa and the UK. These metaphors were then tested in a 3-round Delphi process with a diverse 37-person panel of AMR communication experts from 27 countries. The project sought metaphors for 9 different types of messages:

The microbial world is diverse
Bacteria can develop resistance, meaning that antibiotics lose effectiveness
Antibiotics work only against bacterial infections
It’s the bacteria that develop resistance
Antibiotics should never be shared with other patients
You should complete your course of antibiotics as prescribed
Patients need to follow their doctor’s advice
Antibiotics aren’t always required for minor infections
Infection prevention helps to avoid antibiotic use

The process selected 38 metaphors for global use. You’ll want to peruse the entire table in the publication, but here’s an example from each category:

The world of germs is a garden full of diverse insects – some helpful, a few dangerous.
Weeds resist weed killer—bacteria resist antibiotics
Using antibiotics for viruses is using the wrong key to unlock a door
Just like a bad apple spoils the whole bushel, a few resistant bacteria can affect the wider population—changing the balance and spreading resistance to others.
Sharing leftover antibiotics is using your house key for someone else’s door.
An unfinished course of antibiotics is a fire half-out. Sparks remain, ready to flare up again even stronger.
Ignoring medical advice is baking without a recipe.
Using antibiotics for minor infections is using a sledgehammer to kill a fly.
We can save our antibiotics by avoiding infection just like we avoid emergency services by maintaining our car.

Consistently favored themes included nature/gardening (diverse insects, weeds), tools/engineering (lock-and-key, car maintenance, petrol vs. diesel), and fire-fighting. The ideas of war, soldiers, and fighting were also often considered but were not favored due to the way these themes can reduce to binary good/evil concepts that assign blame.

It was also interesting that some ideas were easier than others to express in metaphor. The concept that antibiotics aren’t needed for viral infections generated 7 metaphors whereas the idea that it’s the bacteria that become resistant (rather than the host) only generated 2 metaphors — and neither is (to my eye, anyway) very punchy.

What a fascinating project! As the paper concludes, “Drawing from domains like nature, gardening, tools, engineering, and firefighting these metaphors avoid alarmist war imagery and instead use relatable, everyday symbolism that resonates across cultures and regions.”

And there’s still more to be done: the work could be extended to other languages, other domains (animal health), and related disciplines (diagnostics, in particular).

So, do take a look at the paper and its ideas. I’m also told a metaphor communication toolkit is coming … and I’ll be sure to share that when it is released (22 May 2026 addendum: it’s released and can be found at https://smart.le.ac.uk/.) Until then, many thanks to Krockow et al. for their excellent work!

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.

17-21 April 2026 (Munich, Germany): ESCMID Global 2026, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. You can go here to register and view the preliminary program; the abstract submission window for 2026 will run 15 October to 26 Nov 2025. For those who would like a substantial opportunity to present a product to a large audience (see also adjacent note about IDWeek), I know that the meeting schedule will again include Pipeline Monday.
[PRELIMINARY PROGRAM; TRAVEL GRANTS; ABSTRACT DEADLINE is Fri 10 Apr at noon CET] 22-24 Sep 2026 (Lisbon, Portugal): The 2nd GAMRIC, the Global AMR Innovators Conference (London, UK). Formerly the ESCMID-ASM (or ASM-ESCMID depending on location) Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR, 2026 will be the 11th year for this series that is now under the joint sponsorship of CARB-X, ESCMID, BEAM Alliance, GARDP, LifeArc, Boston University, and AMR.Solutions. The ongoing series employs the successful format of prior meetings with a single-track meeting and substantial networking time. The 2025 meeting was a sell-out success! A written summary of the 2025 meeting is here and the videos from the sessions are now available here. Registration for the 2026 meeting is now open and you can view the preliminary program here. Abstract submissions are open through Fri 10 Apr at noon CET; note as well that travel grants are available for attendees with accepted abstracts. A late-breaker window be announced for July.
21-24 Oct 2026 (Washington, DC, USA): IDWeek 2026, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Details are not yet available but I would expect the program to continue to provide a substantial opportunity to present a product to a large audience (see also adjacent note about ESCMID) as well as opportunities to present at an IDWeek Pipeline Session.
23-24 Mar 2027 (Basel, Switzerland): The 10th AMR Conference (3-4 Mar 2026) is now over and offered a rich program that included a 10-year retrospective (we’ve done a lot!), regulatory updates, discussions of how to pursue development in China, and much more … in addition to being a superb opportunity for networking! I am told the session videos will soon be available on the conference website. Mark your calendars for next year’s 11th AMR Conference!

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

17-21 April 2026 (Munich, Germany): ESCMID Global 2026, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. See Recurring Meetings list, above.
[NEW] 28 Apr 2026 (9:30-11:00 CET, virtual): REVIVE (GARDP)-sponsored webinar: “Natural product-inspired antibiotics: Successes and future prospects.” Go here for details and to register.
4-8 June 2026 (Washington, DC): ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. The meeting format is evolving and next year will combine 3 meetings (ASM Health, ASM Applied and Environmental Microbiology, and ASM Mechanism Discovery) into one event. Go here for details.
11-12 Jun 2026 (Washington, DC): The Second Annual Unite for Sepsis Symposium, presented by the Sepsis Alliance. The event seeks to accelerate progress in sepsis research and care. Go here for details and to register.
22-24 Sep 2026 GAMRIC (Lisbon, Portugal), the Global AMR Innovators Conference (London, UK; formerly the ESCMID-ASM Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR). See list of Top Recurring meetings, above..
10-18 Oct 2026 (Annecy, France, residential in-person program): ICARe (Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance) … and 2026 will be the 10th year for this program. Patrice Courvalin orchestrates content 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! Registration for 2026 will be during March 16–July 3, 2026. You can go here for more details and you should put a reminder in your calendar register on / after 16 March.
21-24 Oct 2026 (Washington, DC, USA): IDWeek 2026. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
10-13 November 2026 (Madrid, Spain): The International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) has announced its 21st International Congress on Infectious Diseases (ICID). Register and view the preliminary program here (Early bird closes 30 July 2026); abstract deadline is 28 April 2026.
23-24 Mar 2027 (Basel, Switzerland): The 11th AMR Conference sponsored by the BEAM Alliance. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
??? Mar 2028 (yes, that’s 2028, with location TBD): The 2028 Gordon Research Conference (GRC, https://www.grc.org/) entitled “Antibacterials of Tomorrow to Combat the Global Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance” and its related Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) for young doctoral and post-doctoral researchers will be sometime in March 2028. The organizers hope to coordinate dates and location with the 2028 BEAM-AMR meeting. Details to follow — mark your calendar!

Self-paced courses, online training materials, and other reference materials:

OpenWHO: “Antimicrobial Resistance in the environment: key concepts and interventions.” Per the webpage for the course, it will teach you “…why addressing AMR in the environment is essential and gain insights into how action can be taken to prevent and control AMR in the environment at the national level.” This course builds on WHO’s 2024 Guidance on wastewater and solid waste management for manufacturing of antibiotics. For further reading, see also the 25 Sep 2023 newsletter entitled “Manufacturing underpins both access and stewardship: Cefiderocol as a case study” and the 28 Jan 2024 newsletter entitled “EMA Concept Paper: Guidance on manufacturing of phage products”.
GARDP’s REVIVE website provides an encyclopedia covering a range of R&D terms, recordings of prior GARDP webinars, a variety of viewpoint articles, and more! Check it out!
GARDP’s https://antibioticdb.com/ is an open-access database of antibacterial agents.
The CARB-X website provides a range of recordings from its webinars, bootcamps, and more. A bit of browsing would be time well spent!
British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy offers an eLearning section: Education – The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

Current funding opportunities

CARB-X have announced a funding round that will be open 8-22 April 2026 (there will also be a round during 4Q 2026). There are 4 funding themes as below. Informational webinars have been announced for 9 and 10 April 2026.
- Direct-acting therapeutics for infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria
- Novel Chemistry for AMR Challenge – target-based therapeutics.
- Non-vaccine approaches to prevent neonatal sepsis
- Diagnostics for neonatal sepsis
The Horizon Europe Work Programme 2026-2027 includes at least 3 calls of interest within its Cluster 1 — see the list below. The application window starts 10 Feb 2026 and closes on 16 Apr 2026. See also the 12 Dec 2025 newsletter about the call. Note as well that there calls for agents to prevent and/or treat viral infections.
- HORIZON-HLTH-2027-01-DISEASE-08: Development of innovative antimicrobials against pathogens resistant to antimicrobials
- HORIZON-HLTH-2027-02-IND-02: Portable point-of-care diagnostics
- HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-DISEASE-03:Advancing research on the prevention, diagnosis, and management of post-infection long-term conditions.
ENABLE-2 has continuously open calls for both its Hit-to-Lead program as well as its Hit Identification/Validation incubator. Applicants must be academics and non-profits in Europe due to restrictions from the funders. Applications are evaluated in cycles … see the website for details on current timing for reviews.
BARDA’s long-running BAA (Broad Agency Announcement) for medical countermeasures (MCMs) for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases is now BAA-23-100-SOL-00004 and offers support for both antibacterial and antifungal agents (as well as antivirals, antitoxins, diagnostics, and more). Note especially these Areas of Interest: Area 3.1 (MDR Bacteria and Biothreat Pathogens), Area 3.2 (MDR Fungal Infections), and Area 7.2 (Antibiotic Resistance Diagnostics for Priority Bacterial Pathogens). Although prior BAAs used a rolling cycle of 4 deadlines/year, the updated BAA released 26 Sep 2023 has a 5-year application period that ends 25 Sep 2028 and is open to applicants regardless of location: BARDA seeks the best science from anywhere in the world! See also this newsletter for further comments on the BAA and its areas of interest.
HERA Invest was launched August 2023 with €100 million to support innovative EU-based SMEs in the early and late phases of clinical trials. Part of the InvestEU program supporting sustainable investment, innovation, and job creation in Europe, HERA Invest is open for application to companies developing medical countermeasures that address one of the following cross-border health threats: (i) Pathogens with pandemic or epidemic potential, (ii) Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats originating from accidental or deliberate release, and (iii) Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Non-dilutive venture loans covering up to 50% of investment costs are available. A closing date is not posted insofar as I can see — applications are accepted on a rolling basis; go here for more details.
The AMR Action Fund is open on an ongoing basis to proposals for funding of Phase 2 / Phase 3 antibacterial therapeutics. Per its charter, the fund prioritizes investment in treatments that address a pathogen prioritized by the WHO, the CDC and/or other public health entities that: (i) are novel (e.g., absence of known cross-resistance, novel targets, new chemical classes, or new mechanisms of action); and/or (ii) have significant differentiated clinical utility (e.g., differentiated innovation that provides clinical value versus standard of care to prescribers and patients, such as safety/tolerability, oral formulation, different spectrum of activity); and (iii) reduce patient mortality. It is also expected that such agents would have the potential to strongly address the likely requirements for delinked Pull incentives such as the UK (NHS England) subscription pilot and the PASTEUR Act in the US. Submit queries to contact@amractionfund.com.
INCATE (Incubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe) is an early-stage funding vehicle supporting innovation vs. drug-resistant bacterial infections. The fund provides advice, community, and non-dilutive funding (€10k in Stage I and up to €250k in Stage II) to support early-stage ventures in creating the evidence and building the team needed to get next-level funding. Details and contacts on their website (https://www.incate.net/).
These things aren’t sources of funds but would help you develop funding applications
- The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes the global clinical development pipeline, incentives for AMR R&D, and investors/investments in AMR R&D. See also the 7 Feb 2026 newsletter (“The global funding pipeline, 2017-2023: A review”) about an excellent deep dive by the Hub team into patterns of funding over time.
- Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Innovation in Australia is an actively updated summary that covers Australia’s AMR research and patent landscape. It is provided via collaboration between The Lens (an ambitious project seeking to discover, analyse, and map global innovation knowledge) and CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research). Lots to explore here!
- Diagnostic developers would find valuable guidance in this 6-part series on in vitro diagnostic (IVD) development. Sponsored by CARB-X, C-CAMP, and FIND, it pulls together real-life insights into a succinct set of tutorials.
In addition to the lists provided by the Global AMR R&D Hub, you might also be interested in my most current lists of R&D incentives (link) and priority pathogens (link).

The 37,000-year view: Infections in Eurasia

John Rex — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 12:28:50 +0000

Dear All (prepare for something that is delightfully different and marvelously wonkish AND with thanks to Lance Price for co-authoring this newsletter),

Continuing with the theme in the 15 Aug 2025 newsletter (“Global livestock resistome: Antibiotic resistance is widespread!”) of ways to use sequencing of samples from the environment, we have today an amazing paper in Nature which shows that infections have been plaguing mankind for a long, long time:

Sikora, M., Canteri, E., Fernandez-Guerra, A. et al. The spatiotemporal distribution of human pathogens in ancient Eurasia. Nature 643, 1011–1019 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09192-8.

In brief, the authors analyzed ancient human DNA for evidence of infectious diseases, creating a global infection map spanning spanning 37,000 years. At a more technical level, the process is well summarized by the opening lines of the abstract (line breaks added):

“To create an archaeogenetic-based spatiotemporal map of human pathogens,
- we screened shotgun-sequencing data from 1,313 ancient humans
- covering 37,000 years of Eurasian history.
“We demonstrate the widespread presence of ancient bacterial, viral and parasite DNA, identifying 5,486 individual hits against 492 species from 136 genera.”

You’ll want to spend some time with paper yourself, but let us intrigue you with the data on Yersinia pestis (aka, “the plague”) and Borrelia recurrentis (louse-borne relapsing fever). First up, these figures on Y. pestis:

Look closely … there are 5 boxed figures and some x-axes stacked up here! They require careful study!

The upper pair of figures (the map and the boxed figure below it) with the timeline x-axis running from 10,000 BP to 0 BP show the distribution across Eurasia of samples showing DNA for the plague.
- The authors do have data going back to 37,000 BP, but this analysis focuses on the most recent 10,000 years.
  - Background BP = Before Present based on radiocarbon dating.
  - By definition, 0 BP = 1950 AD.
  - To convert to BC/AD (or BCE/CE), it helps to round a bit by envisioning the scale as running from -10,000 to 0 and then adding 2,000 … 10,000 to 0 BP is thus ~8000 BC/BCE to ~2,000 AD/CE.
- The light grey dots are the estimated date of the samples from the entire dataset of 1,313 individuals. The colored dots correspond to the dates of the plague-positive DNA samples.
Moving down, we have a trio of boxed figures that, importantly, share the same 10,000 BP to present (~8,000 BC to ~2,000 AD) timeline.
- Just above the first boxed figure of this trio, note the thin grey line with grey and blue dots. The authors are here combining their cases of plague (blue dots) with other published cases (grey dots).
- Then, the first boxed figure of the trio gives a grand roll up (blue line with y-axis labeled Detection Rate) of their best estimate of the timing of cases and hence timing of waves of cases.
- The two final boxed figures are the statistical analyses that underpin the Detection Rate estimate.

Impressive! The plague has come and gone over thousands of years! But interestingly, note that it didn’t become common until about 6,000 BP. And then please note the relatively low rates of plague in the periods 2,800-2,000 BP and then again 1,600-600 BP.

With those dates in mind, let’s now look at the same figures for louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF). It may be less familiar than the plague, but it is also a deadly disease. Here we go:

First, just absorb the general pattern for LBRF: As with the plague, there were no cases until ~6,000 to 5,000 BP then waves of cases thereafter. This timing is instructive … as the paper states, “A striking feature shared in the temporal dynamics of plague and LBRF was the absence of detectable cases before roughly 6,000 bp, coinciding with a transition of individuals in predominantly hunter-gatherer contexts to those in farming or pastoralist cultural contexts.”

Next, look at the two periods when plague was relatively quiescent (2,800-2,000, then 1,600-600 BP). Combined with evidence of steady rates of detection environmental pathogens (Fig. 5 in the ms if you want to follow along), this contrast of low rates of plague with the steady rates of LBRF cases is evidence that failure to observe cases of plague was not due to inadequate sampling but rather that the plague really did have have periods of relative quiescence.

—
Fascinating stuff, especially how closely the emergence of zoonotic diseases aligns with paleological estimates of livestock domestication. There’s more to explore in this paper (e.g., hints about leprosy, syphilis, and hepatitis B; cases of diphtheria from 11,000 BP; and more) and we’ll leave you to it. As you read, you might also enjoy the summary that includes some quotes from the authors in the 9 July 2025 New York Times.

And finally, this paper is evidence of the power of antibiotics and the many ways that their absence until about 80 years ago so often changed history. As the authors observe in their introduction:

“Until around 1850, at least a quarter of all children died before the age of one, and around another quarter before turning 15.
“Infectious diseases are estimated to have been responsible for more than half of these deaths.”
- Supporting citation: Volk and Atkinson, “Infant and child death in the human environment of evolutionary adaptation” Evolution and Human Behavior, 34:182-92, 2013, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.11.007.

Please keep working on those new drugs! All best wishes, John & Lance

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.

Lance B. Price, PhD | Co-director, Antibiotic Resistance Action Center | Professor, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University. E: lprice@gwu.edu; Twitter @battlesuperbugs. All opinions are my own.

1-3 Oct 2025 GAMRIC, the Global AMR Innovators Conference (London, UK). Formerly the ESCMID-ASM Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR, this meeting series is now in its 10th year and is being continued under the joint sponsorship of CARB-X, ESCMID, BEAM Alliance, GARDP, LifeArc, Boston University, and AMR.Solutions. The ongoing series will continue the successful format of prior meetings with a single-track meeting and substantial networking time (go here to see details of the outstanding 2024 meeting).
- Registration is now open and the preliminary agenda can be found at that same link (https://www.gamric.org/). The meeting will be limited to approximately 300 attendees, so please be sure to register promptly to avoid disappointment!
19-22 Oct 2025 (Georgia, USA): IDWeek 2025, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Go here to register. For those who would like a substantial opportunity to present a product to a large audience (see also adjacent note about ESCMID), note the call for applications to present at an IDWeek Pipeline Session; go here to submit an application for your compound or diagnostic.
3-4 Mar 2026 (Basel, Switzerland): The 10th AMR Conference. Sponsored by the BEAM Alliance, the 9th AMR Conference has just concluded and it’s again been an excellent meeting! Please mark your calendar for next year. You can’t register yet, but details will appear here!
17-21 April 2026 (Munich, Germany): ESCMID Global 2026, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. You can’t register yet, but you can go here for details on the outstanding 2025 meeting. For those who would like a substantial opportunity to present a product to a large audience (see also adjacent note about IDWeek), I know that the meeting schedule will again include Pipeline Monday; go here to see details from 2025.

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

15-19 Sep 2025 (virtual): US CDC-sponsored the 9th Annual Fungal Disease Awareness Week (FDAW). Daily themed events include “Think Fungus” on 15 Sep, “Fungi are everywhere” on 16 Sep, and “Fungal diseases and drug resistance (19 Sep). Signup for the Mycotic Diseases Branch newsletter to stay updated.
1-3 Oct 2025 GAMRIC, the Global AMR Innovators Conference (London, UK; formerly the ESCMID-ASM Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR). See list of Top Recurring meetings, above..
11-19 Oct 2025 (Annecy, France, residential in-person program): ICARe (Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance) … and 2025 will be the 9th year for this program. Patrice Courvalin orchestrates content 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 are being accepted from 20 Mar to 21 Jun 2025 — go here for more details.
17-20 Sep 2025 (Porto, PT): 14th International Meeting on Microbial Epidemiological Markers (IMMEM XIV). Go here for details.
9-13 Nov 2025 (Portland, OR, USA): ASM Conference on Biofilms. Go here for details and to register.
18-24 Nov 2025 (global, multiple locations): World Antibiotic Awareness Week (WAAW) is convened annually on 18-24 Nov by WHO with national events (e.g., CDC’s US Antibiotic Awareness Week (USAAW); ECDC’s 18 Nov European Antibiotic Awareness Day) occurring around the globe. Details will follow as events become visible.
19-22 Oct 2025 (Georgia, USA): IDWeek 2025. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
29-31 Oct 2025 (Bengalaru, India): ASM Global Research Symposium on the One Health Approach to Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), hosted in partnership with the Centre for Infectious Disease Research (CIDR) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Go here for details and to register.
28-30 Jan 2026 (Las Vegas, NV, USA): IDSA and ASM have announced a new US-based meeting series entitled IAMRI (Interdisciplinary Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance and Innovation) and described as a “forum for collaboration and exploration around the latest advances in antimicrobial drug discovery and development.” You can’t register yet (the website says registration will open September 2025) but you go here for the program and to submit an abstract (deadline for abstracts is 1 Oct 2025).
[NEW] 4-5 Feb 2026 (virtual, 8a-noon GMT on both days): Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Conference 2026, sponsored by BSAC and GARDP. Registration here: acc-conference.com. Abstracts are welcomed and can be submitted here; abstract deadline is Friday, 14 November 2025, 17:00 GMT.
3-4 Mar 2026 (Basel, Switzerland): The 10th AMR Conference sponsored by the BEAM Alliance. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
8-13 Mar 2026 (Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco, Italy): 2026 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) entitled “Antibacterials of Tomorrow to Combat the Global Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance.” A Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will be held the weekend before (7-8 Mar) for young doctoral and post-doctoral researchers. Space for the GRS and the GRC is limited; for details and to apply, go here for the GRC and here for the GRS.
17-21 April 2026 (Munich, Germany): ESCMID Global 2026, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. See Recurring Meetings list, above.
4-8 June 2026 (Washington, DC): ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. The meeting format is evolving and next year will combine 3 meetings (ASM Health, ASM Applied and Environmental Microbiology, and ASM Mechanism Discovery) into one event. Go here for details.

Self-paced courses, online training materials, and other reference materials:

OpenWHO: “Antimicrobial Resistance in the environment: key concepts and interventions.” Per the webpage for the course, it will teach you “…why addressing AMR in the environment is essential and gain insights into how action can be taken to prevent and control AMR in the environment at the national level.” This course builds on WHO’s 2024 Guidance on wastewater and solid waste management for manufacturing of antibiotics. For further reading, see also the 25 Sep 2023 newsletter entitled “Manufacturing underpins both access and stewardship: Cefiderocol as a case study” and the 28 Jan 2024 newsletter entitled “EMA Concept Paper: Guidance on manufacturing of phage products”.
GARDP’s REVIVE website provides an encyclopedia covering a range of R&D terms, recordings of prior GARDP webinars, a variety of viewpoint articles, and more! Check it out!
GARDP’s https://antibioticdb.com/ is an open-access database of antibacterial agents.
The CARB-X website provides a range of recordings from its webinars, bootcamps, and more. A bit of browsing would be time well spent!
British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy offers an eLearning section: Education – The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

Current funding opportunities

NNF (Novo Nordisk Foundation) have announced their “Challenge Programme 2026 – Unravelling the Pathways of Human Invasive Fungal Diseases. The call seeks applications from EU-centered consortia (global partners are possible) for research in 4 areas: (i) fungal virulence factors, (ii) host-pathogen interactions, (iii) mechanisms of anti-fungal resistance, and (iv) fungal disease markers. Applications are due by 8 Oct 2025. Go here for details.
ENABLE-2 has continuously open calls for both its Hit-to-Lead program as well as its Hit Identification/Validation incubator. Applicants must be academics and non-profits in Europe due to restrictions from the funders. Applications are evaluated in cycles … see the website for details on current timing for reviews.
CARB-X will have two calls during 2025 that span two areas: (i) Small molecules for Gram-negatives (the focus is on Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and (ii) Diagnostics for typhoid (the focus is diagnosis of acute infections in 60 minutes or less). See this 26 Feb 2025 newsletter for a discussion of the call and go here for the CARB-X webpage on the call. The first cycle is now closed (it ran16-30 April 2025); the 2nd round will be open 1-12 Dec 2025.
BARDA’s long-running BAA (Broad Agency Announcement) for medical countermeasures (MCMs) for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases is now BAA-23-100-SOL-00004 and offers support for both antibacterial and antifungal agents (as well as antivirals, antitoxins, diagnostics, and more). Note especially these Areas of Interest: Area 3.1 (MDR Bacteria and Biothreat Pathogens), Area 3.2 (MDR Fungal Infections), and Area 7.2 (Antibiotic Resistance Diagnostics for Priority Bacterial Pathogens). Although prior BAAs used a rolling cycle of 4 deadlines/year, the updated BAA released 26 Sep 2023 has a 5-year application period that ends 25 Sep 2028 and is open to applicants regardless of location: BARDA seeks the best science from anywhere in the world! See also this newsletter for further comments on the BAA and its areas of interest.
HERA Invest was launched August 2023 with €100 million to support innovative EU-based SMEs in the early and late phases of clinical trials. Part of the InvestEU program supporting sustainable investment, innovation, and job creation in Europe, HERA Invest is open for application to companies developing medical countermeasures that address one of the following cross-border health threats: (i) Pathogens with pandemic or epidemic potential, (ii) Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats originating from accidental or deliberate release, and (iii) Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Non-dilutive venture loans covering up to 50% of investment costs are available. A closing date is not posted insofar as I can see — applications are accepted on a rolling basis; go here for more details.
The AMR Action Fund is open on an ongoing basis to proposals for funding of Phase 2 / Phase 3 antibacterial therapeutics. Per its charter, the fund prioritizes investment in treatments that address a pathogen prioritized by the WHO, the CDC and/or other public health entities that: (i) are novel (e.g., absence of known cross-resistance, novel targets, new chemical classes, or new mechanisms of action); and/or (ii) have significant differentiated clinical utility (e.g., differentiated innovation that provides clinical value versus standard of care to prescribers and patients, such as safety/tolerability, oral formulation, different spectrum of activity); and (iii) reduce patient mortality. It is also expected that such agents would have the potential to strongly address the likely requirements for delinked Pull incentives such as the UK (NHS England) subscription pilot and the PASTEUR Act in the US. Submit queries to contact@amractionfund.com.
INCATE (Incubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe) is an early-stage funding vehicle supporting innovation vs. drug-resistant bacterial infections. The fund provides advice, community, and non-dilutive funding (€10k in Stage I and up to €250k in Stage II) to support early-stage ventures in creating the evidence and building the team needed to get next-level funding. Details and contacts on their website (https://www.incate.net/).
These things aren’t sources of funds but would help you develop funding applications
- The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes the global clinical development pipeline, incentives for AMR R&D, and investors/investments in AMR R&D.
- Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Innovation in Australia is an actively updated summary that covers Australia’s AMR research and patent landscape. It is provided via collaboration between The Lens (an ambitious project seeking to discover, analyse, and map global innovation knowledge) and CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research). Lots to explore here!
- Diagnostic developers would find valuable guidance in this 6-part series on in vitro diagnostic (IVD) development. Sponsored by CARB-X, C-CAMP, and FIND, it pulls together real-life insights into a succinct set of tutorials.
In addition to the lists provided by the Global AMR R&D Hub, you might also be interested in my most current lists of R&D incentives (link) and priority pathogens (link).

EPA (part 3): Streptomycin spray on citrus? Not any more!

John Rex — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 02:50:02 +0000

This is the third of a 5-part newsletter series. There is an initial 27 Sep 2023 newsletter introducing the EPA concept note, a second (28 Sep 2023) newsletter that expands on the EPA concept note, a 4th newsletter (27 Jan 2024) containing some additional resources, and a fifth newsletter (11 Oct 2024) about the EPA’s collaborative framework for evaluating the AMR risks of antibacterial and antifungal pesticides.

Dear All,

Your alert co-reader in Australia (Christine Carson at U Western Australia), wrote recently to alert me to a ruling on the question of streptomycin spray on citrus. To reprise:

The 27 Sep 2023 newsletter (“EPA Concept Note (Part 1): AMR Risks Of Antibacterial Or Antifungal Pesticides”) introduced us to these ideas:
- In legal terms, “pesticide” means “any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest…”
- So, both use of an azole to control mold on plants or use of streptomycin to combat citrus disease (aka, citrus greening) would be classified as their use as a pesticide.
- And the point of the newsletter was that EPA have released a concept note and started a process to evaluate “… a Framework To Assess the Risk to the Effectiveness of Human and Animal Drugs Posed by Certain Antibacterial or Antifungal Pesticides.”
- In short, this is the plant agriculture equivalent of the goal of reduced use of antibiotics in animal agriculture.
  - And as aside, the docket for the concept note has received more than 5k comments! Yow!
The follow-up 28 Sep 2023 newsletter (“EPA (Part 2, Streptomycin!) / $104m ARPA-H BAA And AMR Project”) was triggered by a note from Christine … she pointed out a lawsuit filed with the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals by a coalition of health and environmental groups including the NRDC (a US-based international environmental advocacy group) vs. EPA over the use of streptomycin sprays to control citrus greening:
- Briefly, the lawsuit argued that EPA had failed to ensure that the use of streptomycin would not cause unreasonable harm to human health or the environment.
- At the time of that newsletter, the state of the Court’s analysis was not known — there some audio and video recordings available from the court hearing but no further insight.
And now we come to the denouement: The 9th Circuit Court has ruled! Quoting from a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity:
- “In the ruling, the Court determined the EPA’s 2021 decision to allow spraying of streptomycin on citrus crops across the country to be unlawful under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and the Endangered Species Act.
- “The Court also held that the seriousness of the EPA’s errors required it to vacate the agency’s approval of the pesticide.”
- Translation: No more streptomycin spray for citrus greening!
The full-length Court judgement is interesting reading … even just the first few paragraphs give you a good sense of the logic.

Very glad to see this … streptomycin is a member of the very important aminoglycoside antibiotic class and needs to be protected for human use! And hopefully the bigger picture is that EPA’s approval process going forward will be amended based on the final version of the conceptual framework now being discussed in the concept note that triggered this series of 3 newsletters:

Thanks, Christine, for this update!

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.

Current funding opportunities

BARDA’s long-running BAA (Broad Agency Announcement) for medical countermeasures (MCMs) for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases is now BAA-23-100-SOL-00004 and offers support for both antibacterial and antifungal agents (as well as antivirals, antitoxins, diagnostics, and more). Note especially these Areas of Interest: Area 3.1 (MDR Bacteria and Biothreat Pathogens), Area 3.2 (MDR Fungal Infections), and Area 7.2 (Antibiotic Resistance Diagnostics for Priority Bacterial Pathogens). Although prior BAAs used a rolling cycle of 4 deadlines/year, the updated BAA released 26 Sep 2023 has a 5-year application period that ends 25 Sep 2028 and is open to applicants regardless of location: BARDA seeks the best science from anywhere in the world! See also this newsletter for further comments on the BAA and its areas of interest.
FDA have released a BAA covering a wide variety of regulatory topics. See this newsletter for general details; also note in particular an RFP for work on urine-specific breakpoints for uUTI. Early concept papers are due 6 Nov 2023; full proposals are due 19 Feb 2024.
NIAID have a BAA open through 13 Mar 2024 for projects covering vaccines, therapeutics vs. selected pathogens (specific viruses, fungi, and bacteria), and sequencing-based diagnostics. See this newsletter for further details.
JPIAMR have an AMR Interventions call that is open for pre-applications through 14 Mar 2024. The call covers interventions for both fungi and bacteria. Go here for full details. Note that there is an informational 24 Jan 2024 webinar for applicants.
ARPA-H have an Open BAA that is accepting applications through 14 March 2024. It is quite wide-ranging in its scope and definitely includes AMR-related projects. See this newsletter for discussion of the BAA and an AMR project that it now supports.
HERA Invest was launched August 2023 with €100 million to support innovative EU-based SMEs in the early and late phases of clinical trials. Part of the InvestEU program supporting sustainable investment, innovation, and job creation in Europe, HERA Invest is open for application to companies developing medical countermeasures that address one of the following cross-border health threats: (i) Pathogens with pandemic or epidemic potential, (ii) Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats originating from accidental or deliberate release, and (iii) Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Non-dilutive venture loans covering up to 50% of investment costs are available. A closing date is not posted insofar as I can see — applications are accepted on a rolling basis; go here for more details.
The ENABLE-2 consortium has announced a call to support hit-to-lead compound development by researchers at publicly-funded European universities. The call is focused on molecules with the potential to be direct-acting therapies for one or more of the following priority pathogens: ESBL-producing/carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (E. coli, K. pneumoniae), P. aeruginosa, A. baumannii, methicillin-resistant S. aureus, or vancomycin-resistant E. faecium. The Call is open continuously, applications are reviewed at intervals, and funding is non-dilutive. Expressions of interest received before 30 Sep 2023 would be considered in November 2023. Applications received after this date will be evaluated in the spring of 2024 (date to be decided). Go to https://www.ilk.uu.se/enable2/apply/ for further details.
The AMR Action Fund is open on an ongoing basis to proposals for funding of Phase 2 / Phase 3 antibacterial therapeutics. Per its charter, the fund prioritizes investment in treatments that address a pathogen prioritized by the WHO, the CDC and/or other public health entities that: (i) are novel (e.g., absence of known cross-resistance, novel targets, new chemical classes, or new mechanisms of action); and/or (ii) have significant differentiated clinical utility (e.g., differentiated innovation that provides clinical value versus standard of care to prescribers and patients, such as safety/tolerability, oral formulation, different spectrum of activity); and (iii) reduce patient mortality. It is also expected that such agents would have the potential to strongly address the likely requirements for delinked Pull incentives such as the UK (NHS England) subscription pilot and the PASTEUR Act in the US. Submit queries to contact@amractionfund.com.
INCATE (Incubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe) is an early-stage funding vehicle supporting innovation vs. drug-resistant bacterial infections. The fund provides advice, community, and non-dilutive funding (€10k in Stage I and up to €250k in Stage II) to support early-stage ventures in creating the evidence and building the team needed to get next-level funding. Details and contacts on their website (https://www.incate.net/).
These things aren’t sources of funds but would help you develop funding applications
- AiCuris’ AiCubator offers incubator support to very early stage projects. Read more about it here.
- The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes the global clinical development pipeline, incentives for AMR R&D, and investors/investments in AMR R&D.
- Diagnostic developers would find valuable guidance in this 6-part series on in vitro diagnostic (IVD) development. Sponsored by CARB-X, C-CAMP, and FIND, it pulls together real-life insights into a succinct set of tutorials.
In addition to the lists provided by the Global AMR R&D Hub, you might also be interested in my most current lists of R&D incentives (link) and priority pathogens (link).

6-7 Mar 2024 (Basel, Switzerland): The 8th AMR Conference 2024. Go here to register!
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!

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

[Post-meeting video available] 12 Dec 2023 (virtual, 1-2.15p ET): Duke-Margolis held the third and final installment of their webinar series for policymakers combating AMR with a webinar entitled “Improving Regulatory Practices to Sustain Antibiotic Innovation.” The webinar featured perspectives from experts affiliated with the FDA, Industry, GARDP, CARB-X, and the Center for Global Development. The webinar was excellent and is available for streaming; prior webinars occurred on 9 May 2023 on the Need for New Antibiotics, and on 29 Aug 2023 on Preparedness for AMR Threats (also see their related October 2023 report on Preparedness and Post-Market Incentives for Novel Antibiotics).
22 Jan 2024 (virtual, 5p-6.30p CET): ‘What do the various non-commercial actors in the antibiotics R&D ecosystem do?’ with Erin Duffy (CARB-X), Peter Beyer (GARDP) and Laura Marin (JPIAMR). Click here to register.
24 Jan 2024 (online, 9a-1p London): Webinar entitled “Priorities and next steps for tackling antimicrobial resistance in the UK”, sponsored by the Westminster Health Forum. Featured speakers include Dame Sally Davies and the focus is on the UK’s 20-year vision and 5-year action plan for AMR. Go here for details and to register.
6-7 Feb 2024 (online): Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Conference. This is an annual, free of charge conference that is co-organized by GARDP and the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC). Go here to register.
8 Feb 2024 (in person, Liverpool, UK, 8.30a – 4p): 2024 BioInfect Conference. A full-day AMR conference that includes a keynote from Lord Jim O’Neill (Chairman of the UK AMR Review). Go here for details and to register.
27 Feb 2024 (in person, New York City, 3-6.30p ET): Hosted by the AMR Industry Alliance (AMRIA), “A Call-to-Action in the Fight Against AMR: Priorities for Progress at the 2024 UN High-level Meeting on AMR” is a symposium (3-5.30p) and reception (5.30-6.30p). Precise details are pending … for now, we are advised to hold the date. I’ll post updates as I receive them … presumably this will also appear on AMRIA’s website.
6-7 Mar 2024 (Basel, 6-7 Mar 2024): See Recurring Meetings list, above.
17-22 Mar 2024 (Ventura Beach, CA, in person): Gordon Research Conference (GRC) entitled “New Antibacterial Discovery and Development” with a 16-17 Mar 2024 pre-conference Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) for young doctoral and post-doctoral researchers. An intensive residential meeting, GRCs are highly recommended for networking and deep research insights. Apply here for the GRC and here for the GRS.
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.
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.

Attention UK-Based Folks with Musical Talent!

John Rex — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 03:29:36 +0000

Note: World Antibiotic Awareness Week begins tomorrow and there are multiple updates to the meeting calendar … please look for the red text in the meeting calendar!

Dear All,

For those of you in the UK, particularly if you are based in the London area, there’s a chance for you to be part of the upcoming London production of Lifeline! Show runner Robin Hiley sat down for a brief fireside chat about the upcoming production and I have to say I am very excited, particularly since I had the chance to see the show in NYC last year. A central part of the show is the Greek chorus of AMR professionals who provide verbal commentary as the show runs. These are real-life professionals – anyone whose day job is impacted by AMR – who have the chance to train and perform with a professional cast! They are looking for a pool of 60, with 12 performing each week of the 5-week run.

Could this be you? If you are interested in being part of the Greek chorus, expressions of interest are due by 18 Dec 2025 and auditions run 10-13 Jan 2026 in central London. Go to https://www.lifelinemusical.com/chorus/ to get all the detail on how to participate!

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.

[Registration is now open] 3-4 Mar 2026 (Basel, Switzerland): The 10th AMR Conference. Sponsored by the BEAM Alliance, the 9th AMR Conference was an excellent meeting! A draft program has been posted and registration is now open. Please plan to attend!
17-21 April 2026 (Munich, Germany): ESCMID Global 2026, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. You can go here to register and view the preliminary program; the abstract submission window for 2026 will run 15 October to 26 Nov 2025. For those who would like a substantial opportunity to present a product to a large audience (see also adjacent note about IDWeek), I know that the meeting schedule will again include Pipeline Monday.
22-24 Sep 2026 (Lisbon, Portugal): The 2nd GAMRIC, the Global AMR Innovators Conference (London, UK). Formerly the ESCMID-ASM Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR, 2026 will be the 11th year for this series that is now under the joint sponsorship of CARB-X, ESCMID, BEAM Alliance, GARDP, LifeArc, Boston University, and AMR.Solutions.
- The ongoing series employs the successful format of prior meetings with a single-track meeting and substantial networking time. The 2025 meeting was a sell-out success and the video from the sessions is now available here.
- [Don’t miss this: 16 Dec 2025 update webinar] The GAMRIC program committee is hosting an update webinar on 16 Dec 2025 (8-9a ET, 2-3 CET) that will include a review of the 2025 content and brainstorming on content for 2026. Go here to register! Don’t miss it!
21-24 Oct 2026 (Washington, DC, USA): IDWeek 2026, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Details are not yet available but I would expect the program to continue to provide a substantial opportunity to present a product to a large audience (see also adjacent note about ESCMID) as well as opportunities to present at an IDWeek Pipeline Session.

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

18 Nov 2025 (virtual, 2-3.30p CET): OHAMR (One Health AMR) informational webinar regarding their first call. Go here to register for the webinar; see also the 22 Oct 2025 newsletter about the call.
[NEW] 18 and 19 Nov 2025 (virtual, 7a ET / 1p CET): The QJSAMR (Quadripartite Joint Secretariat on AMR) is holding info sessions on the path to establishing the Independent Panel on Evidence for Action against AMR (IPEA). The sessions appear to be identical and you can register for either here. Background materials for the process are here.
[Starting now, too many events to list] 18-24 Nov 2025 (global, multiple locations): World Antibiotic Awareness Week (WAAW) is convened annually on 18-24 Nov by WHO with national events (e.g., CDC’s US Antibiotic Awareness Week (USAAW); ECDC’s 18 Nov European Antibiotic Awareness Day) occurring around the globe. Details will follow as events become visible. Media toolkits are being released
- The Health Diplomacy Alliance offers a media toolkit with the theme “7 Days, 7 Actions, 7 Stakeholders.”
- CDC offers a Be Antibiotics Aware Toolkit
- ECDC offers a range of tools: key messages, infographics. and factsheets.
[NEW] 20 Nov 2025 (virtual, 13.30-15.00 CET): Webinar entitled “Antimicrobial resistance in conflict-affected settings:
field realities, operational challenges & policy recommendations.” The webinar is convened by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and hosted by the QJSAMR via its AMR MSPP (AMR Multi-Stakeholder Partnership Platform). Go here to register.
20 Nov 2025 (Washington, DC, 9a-5p ET): BARDA Innovation Symposium. BARDA will be showcasing early-stage health security innovations supported by BARDA, including through DRIVe, BARDA Accelerator Network, BARDA Ventures, Blue Knight, and CARB-X. The symposium (see also the 20 Sep 2025 newsletter: “20 Nov 2025: BARDA Innovation Symposium”) convenes “a diverse network of early stage companies, government agencies, non dilutive funders, investors, and strategic partners all interested in developing the next generation of medical countermeasures (MCMs).” BARDA has consistently been a very creative funder seeking very diverse types of products … could this be you? Go here for details and to register.
28-30 Jan 2026 (Las Vegas, NV, USA): IDSA and ASM have announced a new US-based meeting series entitled IMARI (Interdisciplinary Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance and Innovation) that is described as a “forum for collaboration and exploration around the latest advances in antimicrobial drug discovery and development.” Go here for to register. The window for general abstracts is closed, but a call for abstracts presenting new agents is now open through 1 Dec 2025.
4-5 Feb 2026 (virtual, 8a-noon GMT on both days): Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Conference 2026, sponsored by BSAC and GARDP. Registration here: acc-conference.com. Abstracts are welcomed and can be submitted here; abstract deadline is Friday, 14 November 2025, 17:00 GMT.
5 Feb 2026 (in person, Alderley Park, UK): BioInfect, the annual AMR-focused networking conference delivered by BioNow. Go here for details and to register.
18-20 Feb 2026 (Sydney, Australia, in person): The “AMR 2026 Summit”, hosted by the Fleming Initiative and Australia’s Science Agency, CSIRO. This event (website) will spotlight evidence-informed One Health approaches, practical solutions to implementation barriers, and strategies for public engagement, education, and advocacy. Space is limited, so (and sort of like applying to attend a Gordon Conference), please register your interest to attend here.
3-4 Mar 2026 (Basel, Switzerland): The 10th AMR Conference sponsored by the BEAM Alliance. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
8-13 Mar 2026 (Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco, Italy): 2026 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) entitled “Antibacterials of Tomorrow to Combat the Global Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance.” A Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will be held the weekend before (7-8 Mar) for young doctoral and post-doctoral researchers. Space for the GRS and the GRC is limited; for details and to apply, go here for the GRC and here for the GRS.
17-21 April 2026 (Munich, Germany): ESCMID Global 2026, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. See Recurring Meetings list, above.
4-8 June 2026 (Washington, DC): ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. The meeting format is evolving and next year will combine 3 meetings (ASM Health, ASM Applied and Environmental Microbiology, and ASM Mechanism Discovery) into one event. Go here for details.
22-24 Sep 2026 GAMRIC (Lisbon, Portugal), the Global AMR Innovators Conference (London, UK; formerly the ESCMID-ASM Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR). See list of Top Recurring meetings, above..
10-18 Oct 2026 (Annecy, France, residential in-person program): ICARe (Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance) … and 2026 will be the 10th year for this program. Patrice Courvalin orchestrates content 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! Registration for 2026 will not open for some time; go here for more details and put a reminder in your calendar to check back in the Spring if you are interested.
21-24 Oct 2026 (Washington, DC, USA): IDWeek 2026. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.

Self-paced courses, online training materials, and other reference materials:

OpenWHO: “Antimicrobial Resistance in the environment: key concepts and interventions.” Per the webpage for the course, it will teach you “…why addressing AMR in the environment is essential and gain insights into how action can be taken to prevent and control AMR in the environment at the national level.” This course builds on WHO’s 2024 Guidance on wastewater and solid waste management for manufacturing of antibiotics. For further reading, see also the 25 Sep 2023 newsletter entitled “Manufacturing underpins both access and stewardship: Cefiderocol as a case study” and the 28 Jan 2024 newsletter entitled “EMA Concept Paper: Guidance on manufacturing of phage products”.
GARDP’s REVIVE website provides an encyclopedia covering a range of R&D terms, recordings of prior GARDP webinars, a variety of viewpoint articles, and more! Check it out!
GARDP’s https://antibioticdb.com/ is an open-access database of antibacterial agents.
The CARB-X website provides a range of recordings from its webinars, bootcamps, and more. A bit of browsing would be time well spent!
British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy offers an eLearning section: Education – The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

Discussing Details of ATMF’s 2021 AMR Benchmark Report!

John Rex — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 13:51:41 +0000

Dear All,

As you may remember, last fall I wrote a newsletter about ATMF’s 3rd update to the AMR Benchmark series. You are encouraged to read the report but in brief, the key messages are (i) the pipeline is small with most innovation coming from small biotech, (ii) stewardship and access planning are increasingly seen (but access itself remains poor even in high-income countries), and (iii) efforts are being made to control environmental release during manufacturing.

Alternatively, you can check out the videos below! Fatema Rafiqi is a Research Programme Manager for the ATMF AMR Benchmark so she was the perfect person to record the following videos with!

The first video is a ~12min discussion of the report’s highlights. Ideal for those who have not had a chance to read it yet!

The second video is a ~34 min fireside chat with Fatema. I was curious to know more about her and her career thus far and it proved to be quite the interesting chat. I imagine quite a few of you will enjoy hearing about her journey to ATMF!

Start here if you’ve not read the report yet. We discuss the highlights of the report and Fatema provides some background into how ATMF creates the report.

I had a great time getting to know Fatema! I really do love getting to talk with other people in AMR and her journey to ATMF is fascinating.

Enjoy! –jr

Current funding opportunities (most current list is here):

[NEW] ICARS– and IDRC-sponsored RFP on gender inequality in AMR (with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa) for proposals of up to $150k for a 9-12 month project. Deadline for proposals is 9 Mar 2022; go here for details.
NIAID has released a four-pronged BAA (Broad Agency Announcement (HHS-NIH-NIAID-BAA2022-1) that coverstherapeutics (antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral), vaccines (again, all 3 areas), and diagnostics. Lots of possibilities! The due date is 18 Mar 2022.
BARDA is seeking proposals under Project BioShield to support late stage development, regulatory approval and potential procurement of antibiotics against biothreat pathogens, Yersinia pestis, Francisella tularensis, and Burkholderia pseudomallei. Small businesses can apply until April 6, 2022. Go here for the details.
JPIAMR’s 14th call is now open. Entitled “Disrupting drug resistance using innovative design”, the call seeks consortia that would seek to “improve the treatment of bacterial and fungal infections (including co-infection) and/or the prevention of the emergence/spread of resistance in humans, animals or plants through the improvement of the efficacy, specificity, delivery, combinations and/or repurposing of drugs and plant protection agents.” Bacteria, fungi, human health, animal health, and plant health are all in scope! Pre-proposals are due 8 Mar 2022; full proposals would be due 5 July 2022. Go here for details.
The AMR Action Fund is now open to proposals for funding of Phase 2 / Phase 3 antibacterial therapeutics. Per its charter, the fund prioritizes investment in treatments that address a pathogen prioritized by the WHO, the CDC and/or other public health entities that: (i) are novel (e.g., absence of known cross-resistance, novel targets, new chemical classes, or new mechanisms of action); and/or (ii) have significant differentiated clinical utility (e.g., differentiated innovation that provides clinical value versus standard of care to prescribers and patients, such as safety/tolerability, oral formulation, different spectrum of activity); and (iii) reduce patient mortality. It is also expected that such agents would have the potential to strongly address the likely requirements for delinked Pull incentives such as the UK (NHS England) subscription pilot and the PASTEUR Act in the US. Submit queries to contact@amractionfund.com.
INCATE (Incubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe) is a newly launched early-stage funding vehicle. Details are still coming into focus, but per comments on 25 Aug 2021 at the BIOCOM conference, their goal is to support ~4 companies per year with about $250k/company. Contact details are on their website (https://www.incate.net/).
CARB-X recently announced that their existing resources will be reserved to fund their existing portfolio (more than 80 total awards, and counting, as they include contracting from prior rounds). New rounds from CARB-X will occur only after new funding is obtained in 2021.
It’s not a funder, but AiCuris’ AiCubator offers incubator support to very early stage projects. Read more about it here.
The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes the global clinical development pipeline, incentives for AMR R&D, and investors/investments in AMR R&D.
In addition to the lists provided by the Global AMR R&D Hub, you might also be interested in my 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):

[If you missed it, you can now watch the video] 8 Dec 2021: “The New Winds Pushing and Pulling Antibacterial Development.” This FABULOUS program featured talks from the UK team behind the NHS “Netflix” pilot, Kevin Outterson’s recently released report documenting the need for global Pull incentives to have a value of $2.2 – 4.8b, and speakers covering PASTEUR and work in the EU on pull incentives. The video is here — please make time to listen to this program!
[GRAM report launch video!]: The 4 Feb 2022 webinar for the GRAM (Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance) report (“1.27 million deaths per year are directly attributable to AMR”) is now available for replay. #AMRSOS!
[NEW] 1 Mar 2022 (virtual x 2 sessions: 10.00-11.30 CET and 15.30-17.00p CET): WHO-sponsored webinar on their Essential Medicines List Antibiotic Book with an emphasis on how it can be used to support national action plans for AMR. Go here to register.
3 Mar 2022 (virtual, 2p GMT): The Longitude Prize (run by Nesta Challenges), CARB-X and FIND, have joined forces for a virtual event in March, AMR& Diagnostic Frontiers: Developing and increasing access to innovative diagnostics in and for low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). Full agenda details and registration can be found here, including an invitation for diagnostic companies to pitch to a panel of global health representatives.
3-6 Mar 2022 (Albuquerque, New Mexico): Biannual meeting of the MSGERC (Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium). Details are here.
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.
9 Mar 2022 (virtual, and in-person): BioInfect Conference, Alderley Park, UK (near Manchester). This long-running Bionow-sponsored annual conference draws a very strong audience. Go here for details.
7-8 Apr 2022 (Basel and in person, we hope): The 6th edition of the annual AMR conference sponsored by the BEAM Alliance, CARB-X, the Novo REPAIR Impact Fund, the IMI Accelerator, and the European Biotechnology Network. Go here for the hold-the-date page and a way to be kept informed about the meeting.
9-13 May 2022 (Athens and online): 40th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases, Go here for details.
20-24 Sep 2022 (New Delhi): 21st Congress of the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology (ISHAM). Go here for details.
25-28 Oct 2022 (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.

Stewardship & Access Guide from CARB-X, Wellcome, and partners: Analysis, video chat

John Rex — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 14:00:55 +0000

Dear All,

Novel antibacterial agents, vaccines, and diagnostics will do little if they are not widely available and used responsibly. CDDEP’s recent report entitled “The State of the World’s Antibiotics in 2021” makes this very clear: “… more people in LMICs (low-middle-income countries) die from lack of access to antimicrobials than from resistant infection.”

Hence, CARB-X has required from the very start that all grant recipients commit to creating a Stewardship & Access Plan (SAP) within 90 days of their product entering pivotal (Phase III or the equivalent for diagnostics) clinical development.

Although this is easy to articulate at a high level (“Please have a plan!”), the best approach to balancing access, stewardship, and innovation has long been a source of debate within the community.

As the SAP would be shared publicly once the product has obtained regulatory approval and would need to cover both Stewardship (appropriate use) and Access (Accessibility, Availability, Affordability, and Acceptability), it’s obviously an ambitious document. But, providing stewardship and access is also not something that the developer can do alone — others also have a role to play.

To support CARB-X grantees as they seek to address this task, a SAP Development Guide has been published today (press release) that provides guidance on meeting the SAP requirement. It is an impressive and thoughtful document that has been created by Wellcome Trust in collaboration with CARB-X, its funding partners, and other interested parties: US Dept of Health and Human Services Office of Global Affairs (DHHS OGA), BARDA, the Global AMR Innovation Fund (GAMRIF), UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Wellcome Trust, GARDP, and the Access to Medicine Foundation (ATMF).

The Guide suggests a structure for a SAP and supports this with a detailed list of points to consider (Annex B), a starter list for possible strategies (Annex C) and links to organizations that can provide support and partnering opportunities (Annex D). It is obvious that a lot of thought has gone into this! In particular, the list of plausible strategies in Annex C make this document a strong starting point on what can reasonably be expected of product developers, whether part of the CARB-X system or not.

Tim Jinks, Head of the Drug-resistant Infections Programme at Wellcome Trust said, “The SAP Development Guide represents a new benchmark for what can be expected from companies preparing to market innovative antibiotics, as they should proactively develop robust plans enabling worldwide stewardship and equitable access alongside market entry plans. We hope that these insights inform the wider pharmaceutical, scientific and global health community, as well as CARB-X awardees.”

Impressive! But it is critical to note that responsibility for implementing a SAP does not lie solely with product developers. This point is not explicitly covered in the SAP guide, but many of the actions required can only be suggested by the product sponsor and greater action is also needed from governments, donors and civil society, working with industry, to develop innovative solutions that both accelerate equitable access to new products and slow the spread of bacterial drug resistance.

In particular, delinked Pull incentives are needed both to attract R&D investment and to support the pipeline and the newly approved antibiotics to which the SAP will be applied. On this theme, Thomas Cueni, Director General and key architect of the recently announced AMR Action Fund (see this newsletter for more) said, “With the recent commitment by Industry of ~$1b for the AMR Action Fund that will support Phase 2-3 development and bring 2-4 important new antibiotics to approval by 2030, the pharmaceutical industry is definitely stepping up to meet the challenge of AMR! But, the recent market failures of newly launched antibiotics show clearly that governments need to take action now to implement the delinked incentive models that will sustain these new agents after they are approved.”

While reviewing SAP Development Guide, you should also review the recent report from ATM entitled 2021 Access to Medicine Index. ATMF contributed to the SAP Development Guide and it is exciting to see the momentum that is building. Here is a summary provided by ATMF:

“The most notable progress is in planning ahead during R&D to make future products accessible: eight companies are developing approaches for systematically ensuring all R&D projects are paired with plans to increase access in poorer countries soon after launch (these have yet to be applied across late-stage projects).
“The industry has stepped up efforts to understand the outcomes of their access-related activities, and more companies are evaluating initiatives to build local capacity and strengthen health systems than in 2018.
“All 20 companies have now set specific goals and targets for improving access, and more companies are deploying business models that explicitly include people at the base of the income pyramid.
“There is also movement in responsible promotional practices, with three additional companies adopting rewards schemes that decouple sales agents’ incentives from sales targets only (now 12 companies).”

Hooray for CARB-X, Wellcome Trust, and their partners! The SAP requirement is a reminder that none of us are safe from AMR until we are all safe! As stated by the IACG AMR (Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance) in their 2019 report to the UN Secretary-General, “Antimicrobial resistance is a global crisis that threatens a century of progress in health and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.”

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.

Current funding opportunities (most current list is here):

[IMPORTANT UPDATE] Novo REPAIR Impact Fund will open its next global call on 1 April 2021. Go here for current details.
[NEW] NIAID’s 2021 Broad Agency Announcement for product development is entitled “Development of Medical Countermeasures for Biothreat Agents, Antimicrobial-Resistant Infections an Emerging Infectious Diseases” and is now live with a 24 May 2021 deadline. Research areas include Vaccines, Therapeutics, and Sequencing-Based Diagnostics.
CARB-X recently announced that their existing resources will be reserved to fund their existing portfolio (more than 80 total awards, and counting, as they include contracting from prior rounds). New rounds from CARB-X will occur only after new funding is obtained in 2021.
It’s not a funder, but AiCuris’ AiCubator offers incubator support to very early stage projects. Read more about it here.
The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes the global clinical development pipeline, incentives for AMR R&D, and investors/investments in AMR R&D.
In addition to the lists provided by the Global AMR R&D Hub, you might also be interested in my 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):

24 Mar 2021 (online, 2.30-4p CET): GARDP-sponsored webinar entitled “Discovering and developing new treatments for tuberculosis,” moderated by Lydia Nakiyingi. Go here to register.
[NEW] 25 Mar 2021 (online, 8.30-9.30a EST, 2.30-3.30p CET, 7-8p IST): CDDEP- and WHO-sponsored webinar entitled Vaccines and AMR. The impressive speaker lineup includes Hanan Balkhy (Assistant Director General for AMR at WHO). Go here to register.
20-22 April 2021 (online, 1-5p CET): JPIAMR-sponsored workshop entitled “Feeding the Antimicrobial Therapeutics Pipeline.” JPIAMR, the collaborative global effort of 28 countries (much of the EU and also Argentina, Canada, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Korea, South Africa, and Turkey), is organizing a mixture of keynote talks, abstract presentations, and discussion panels designed to encourage collaborative antibiotic R&D. Go here for more details and registration. Abstract deadline is March 17^th 2021; no previous JPIAMR funding required.
9-12 Jul 2021 (virtual): Annual ECCMID meeting (#31)
10-12 May 2021 (virtual): UK-focused Virtual AMR Innovation Mission sponsored by Innovate UK in collaboration with AMR Insights and Oxford innovation. This free 3-day virtual event seeks to connect AMR-focused start-ups, SMEs and Multinationals, Academia, Research Institutes, Regional Development Companies and other interested stakeholders in the UK, Europe and other parts of the world. It will be followed (COVID-willing!) by a face-to-face mission scheduled for 11-15 Oct 2021. Go here for more details.
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.
24-29 May 2021 (online and in Geneva): ESPID 2021, the 39th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases. 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.
20-24 Jun 2021 (virtual, various times): World Microbe Forum sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS). Go here for more details and to register.
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.
14-29 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.
11-15 Oct 2021 (physical, somewhere in the UK): UK-focused Innovation Mission sponsored by Innovate UK in collaboration with AMR Insights and Oxford innovation. This free event seeks to connect AMR-focused start-ups, SMEs and Multinationals, Academia, Research Institutes, Regional Development Companies and other interested stakeholders in the UK, Europe and other parts of the world. Go here for more details.
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.
25-28 Oct 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.
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.