Experts flew to Delhi this week for a workshop to discuss developing rapid diagnostics for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and ways to overcome this resistance.
Dr Marjorie Bardiau, Marie Curie Researcher with the university’s Environment & Public Health Research Group, is joining experts from University College London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Dundee, and from India institutions including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
The workshop is being run by the UK Science and Innovation Network and among those attending will be representatives from funding agencies from both countries as well as industry.
Dr Bardiau will be speaking on effluents from wastewater treatment plants, which are suspected to be a significant source of antibiotic residues, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) in the environment.
She said: “The battle against superbugs and bacterial infection is more and more difficult as the resistance to antibiotics is increasing rapidly for many infections. Moreover, new antibiotics are very difficult to find and resistance to them often appears very quickly.