Texas Medical Center Training Program in Antimicrobial Resistance

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The rise of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms globally has become a critical public health priority due to the devastating consequences that it may have to the world health and economy. Indeed, antibiotic resistance threatens the progress of medicine in all areas and, as such, the issue has reached the highest level of government, including the Office of the US President (with the creation of the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria) and the initiative for global action by the United Nations, among others. Houston is the home to the largest cluster of healthcare institutions in the world, the Texas Medical Center (TMC) with more than 9,200 hospital beds, receiving more than 8 million patient visits per year. Additionally, the Houston area harbors a strong history of outstanding infectious diseases research and training including that focused on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antibiotic stewardship. In the last two years, the formation of the UTHealth Center for Antimicrobial Resistance and Microbial Genomics (CARMiG) and the Gulf Coast Consortia (GCC) Cluster for Antimicrobial Resistance (GCC-AMR) has resulted in an active, multidisciplinary and comprehensive research and educational program that has amalgamated the efforts of AMR researchers and created the resources, personnel, funding and fertile ground to launch an ambitious, innovative and unparalleled training program on AMR. We propose to establish the Texas Medical Center Training Program on AMR (TPAMR) that seeks to train postdoctoral scholars, clinical residents and fellows from seven geographically adjacent institutions in the TMC (University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Rice University, University of Houston, and Institute of Biosciences and Technology of Texas A&M University) on advanced aspects of AMR research. We aim to take advantage of the strong expertise of the GCC on successful T32 programs in other areas and the educational activities already in place at CARMiG, combined with the expertise of world-class researchers on AMR in the TMC. TPAMR seeks to leverage all the available resources to train the next generation of scientists and clinician-scientists (MDs, PhDs and PharmDs) focused on tackling the pressing AMR public health crisis. The highly collaborative environment provides the perfect opportunity for trainees to acquire the skills, expertise and intellectual abilities to foster innovative research that has a strong translational component and could be developed to directly influence patient care. The focus of expertise of the proposed training grant includes, i) molecular basis of antibiotic resistance, ii) bacterial genomics and bioinformatics, iii) microbiome science, iv) pharmacological aspects of resistance, v) clinical epidemiology and biostatistics of AMR and, vi) antibiotic stewardship. We believe that we are poised to develop a unique, innovative and comprehensive training program that truly provide trainees with exceptional tools and abilities and create a strong cohort of new world-class leaders on AMR.