Global Response Against Superbugs and Pathogens

The emergence and spread of AMR are major socio-economic problems in Europe and worldwide. The epidemic of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, particularly in healthcare settings, is associated with increased costs in terms of economic losses and human suffering, as well as increased rates of mortality and morbidity. Moreover, the United Nations has recently reported that the diversity and abundance of environmental antimicrobial resistance genes are also modulated by climate change, as increased temperature acts as a driver of AMR by modulating bacterial growth, metabolism, mutation rates, and horizontal gene transfer. The GRASP project will address the AMR crisis at several different levels. We will develop different synergistic approaches to target AMR including chemical biology of essential enzymes and virulent factors, drug repurposing, and phage therapy. Moreover, to understand the emergence and spreading of AMR, we are particularly interested in understanding how DNA repair defects can drive the emergence of AMR in the clinical strains of Mycobacterium and Helicobacter pylori. Finally, we are also interested in developing concrete case studies with more applied interest e.g in AMR stewardship, and the development of new computational and AI-based models as well as experimental devices to study the emergence of AMR in Nature and clinics.The highly complementary GRASP consortium includes specific expertise provided by leading European, North American, and African partners that will together build synergistic interactions to address the global health crisis. The private sector will actively provide supervision, mentoring, and various expertise in lab automation, nanofabrication, scientific instrumentation, AI methods, and computational biology. GRASP will thus provide researchers and technicians with new skill sets to advance their career perspectives and networking opportunities.