The world is fighting two pandemics at the same time – COVID19 and the silent pandemic of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR occurs when bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, making their infections harder to treat. In Europe, approximately 25.000 people die every year because of drug resistant infections. It is estimated that AMR will kill an extra 10 million people globally by 2050.
In this episode we will continue to talk about AMR, this time with three researchers, who all tackle the AMR problem from a different angle. We will talk to Dr. Sam Linsen, a Dutch researcher who started Squared Ant in China, a business focusing on antibiotic residue, testing and data gathering in order to map the extent of the problem worldwide. Then we will talk to Dr. Nathaniel Martin, Professor in biological chemistry at the Leiden University. With his research group, he tries to understand bacteria at a molecular level in order to be able to design new antibiotics and develop new molecules that will block resistant pathways bacteria have developed. Our last guest is Professor Arjan de Visser, evolutionary biologist at Wageningen University, who is working on models to predict evolutionary pathways. By understanding the determinants of evolution he tries to get insights in why bacteria evolve resistance.
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