As of September 2016, we have extended our STAR Graduate programme with financial aid from the EU’s Marie Curie Cofund. The selection procedure was open to (foreign) Master’s students who comply with the international mobility rule as defined in the MSCA programme. In three calls, 4 candidates were selected. On these pages you can read more on their research projects
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 713669
Online mini symposium AIMMS COFUND Star Plus
On Friday the 2nd of October we organized a mini symposium with presentations from the PhD students of the AIMMS Star Plus “COFUND” project.
This activity was meant to be in our O|2 building as part of the weekend of science but because of the Corona virus all the activities were cancelled.
As an alternative we organized an online mini-symposium. During the online mini-symposium the AIMMS’s STAR PLUS PhD students gave an update on their ongoing research projects. They all work in the field of antibiotic resistance and development.
See our AIMMS website for more information on this event: https://www.aimms.vu.nl/en/news-events/events/2020/sep-dec/2020-10-02-aimms-mini-symposium.aspx.
Felix Pauluβen started the meeting with his presentation, there were about 42 participants.
The second speaker was Priyanka Chauhan
And the third speaker was Alicia Berkvens
The symposium was a success with a large attendance and many compliments afterwards and Hopefully next time there can be a face-to-face live event.
AIMMS COFUND Star Plus
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 713669
The European Antibiotic Awareness Day 2020 was planned in the week from 11 till 17 November, but due to the Corona virus the event is cancelled. The aim of this European public health initiative is to raise awareness about the threat of antibiotic resistance to public health and the importance of prudent antibiotic use. The number of patients infected by resistant bacteria is increasing across the European Union, causing a major threat to public health. To reduce the development of resistant bacteria prudent use of antibiotics is very important and this will help to keep effective antibiotics available for future generations.
AIMMS researchers of the STAR PLUS program work in the field of antibiotic resistance and development. They are trying to increase the understanding of resistance development and to find new antibiotic targets. Underneath you can find a list of ongoing antibiotic research projects. If you click on the links you will read about the current status of the research projects.
Design of peptide-derived antibiotics that block interactions between bacterial cell division proteins
Development of new molecular strategies by identifying and characterizing switching factors in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Bacterial energy metabolism as potential anti-tuberculosis target
Exploring the Link Between Growth Regulation and Persister Formation
The STAR PLUS has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 713669.
On 18 November the annual European Antibiotic Awareness Day takes place. The aim of this European public health initiative is to raise awareness about the threat of antibiotic resistance to public health and the importance of prudent antibiotic use. The number of patients infected by resistant bacteria is increasing across the European Union, causing a major threat to public health. To reduce the development of resistant bacteria prudent use of antibiotics is very important and this will help to keep effective antibiotics available for future generations.
AIMMS researchers of the STAR and STAR PLUS programme work in the field of antibiotic resistance and development. The AIMMS researchers are trying to increase the understanding of resistance development and to find new antibiotic targets. Underneath you can find a list of ongoing antibiotic research projects.
Understanding resistance evolution and persister formation
Design of peptide-derived antibiotics that block interactions between bacterial cell division proteins
New antibiotic target in Gram-negative bacteria: blocking the transport of virulence factors
Cytochrome P450 enzymes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: novel therapeutic target for an old enemy
Development of new molecular strategies by identifying and characterizing switching factors in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Bacterial energy metabolism as potential anti-tuberculosis target
Tracking exosomal communication during microbial infection
The STAR PLUS has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 713669.
It’s very likely that at least once in your life you have been prescribed a type of antibiotics. Be it for a difficult healing wound, STI, a wisdom tooth infection, post-operative complications, ear infections, you name it. Chances are also high, considering you are reading this, that this antibiotic has been able to help you and has effectively eradicated the harmful bug causing your infection. These types of drugs have saved millions of lives over the last century, and because they are often so effective we sometimes take eliminating infectious diseases for granted. Maybe even consider it a solved problem, without reminding ourselves that before the second world war diarrhoea and lung infections were leading causes of death.
The pre-antibiotics era looked much different than now, but due to large misuse of antibiotics we are now facing the threats of a potential post-antibiotics era where once again, treating infectious diseases won’t be so simple. The number of microbes not responding existing treatments are increasing and we need a complete change in mindset and use of antibiotics in order to reverse this situation. Otherwise, we will face an estimate of 10 million deaths in 2050 caused by this ‘silent pandemic’.
Besides a change in mindset from clinicians and patients, a lot of current research goes into understanding i.a. how bacteria are able to evade being killed by antibiotics; what new compounds can be used on the frontline of this silent battle; and how we can more effectively diagnose infections and predict whether they can be eliminated successfully with a certain treatment.
Some questions we will discuss during our event the 14th of December are:
What would a post-antibiotics world look like? And how did we end up there in the first place? How can a drug that effectively wipes out one type of bacterium, be completely useless for treating that same type a week later? How is it possible that in a group of bacteria that are genetic clones of each other, when given the same antibiotic, most might be killed but a fraction stays alive? And importantly, what strategies can we ourselves implement to reverse this process of increasing resistance?
Development of new molecular strategies by identifying and characterizing switching factors in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Research group: Systems Bioinformatics
Supervisor: Frank Bruggeman
Design of peptide-derived antibiotics
Research group: Organic Chemistry
Supervisor: Ton Grossman
Exploring the Link Between Growth Regulation and Persister Formation
Research group: Systems Bioinformatics
Supervisor: Bas Teusink