Bridging the Gaps: Systems-level approaches to antimicrobial resistance

抗菌素耐药性(AMR)问题是一个日益严峻的挑战，不仅在医疗保健方面，而且在食品安全和农业等领域也是如此。耐甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌等耐药细菌的流行得到了媒体的广泛报道，与耐药性有关的问题现在得到了比以往任何时候都更广泛的认识，开发新方法的重要性也是如此，特别是在与多重耐药物种相关的问题增加的情况下。目前的建议旨在利用工程学和物理科学中广泛适用的专门知识，与生物科学研究人员、临床医生和工业界合作，提供迄今尚未开发的机会，为应对这些非常重大的挑战做出重大贡献。因此，我们将推出一项活动计划，促进工程学、物理科学和生物科学之间跨越传统界限的新的跨学科合作。诺丁汉大学在这种跨学科活动以及与AMR相关的研究方面有着杰出的历史，并将利用这些经验来应对AMR的挑战。促进新的研究合作的主要机制将是主题沙坑的机制，其基础是该大学在2000年开创的医学数学研究小组的成功(随后催生了植物数学研究小组等)。在这些会议上，来自生物科学、临床医学或工业的演讲者将描述可能受益于工程学和物理科学的新方法的问题；围绕这些主题的密集集思广益工作将确定所需的技能并建立相关的跨学科团队；然后将为确定的最有希望的项目提供种子资金。虽然这一进程现已确立，但此类研讨会的结果远不能预测，上述各学科的集合应能确保创新办法脱颖而出。其他机制将包括挑战日(修改商学院举办的行业挑战日的成功方法，以确保研究发展符合潜在最终用户的需求)、学科跳跃借调、快速网络会议、跨学科研讨会(重点放在具体方法上，以进一步增加发现研究领域之间潜在交叉的机会)，以及年度展示活动，形式为发布会和总结“展望”研讨会。这些活动将通过访问学者计划得到加强，通过访问学者计划，互补领域的顶尖专家将为倡议贡献他们的专业知识。该计划的资金将被分配到多学科项目中，根据其研究卓越程度和应对AMR挑战的能力进行评选。该方案的战略小组将负责评估申请和监测进展情况；上文概述的活动是专门设计的(特别是将不同学科的研究人员聚集在一起)，以确保制定的研究想法具有高度创新性，并确保相关项目具有所需的研究专门知识组合。该计划将非常明确地面向外部，广泛吸收临床医生、工业家和其他潜在最终用户的意见，并与其他地方的补充研究相互作用。结合所开发研究的卓越和创新，这种合作将确保该倡议的可持续性。

The problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an increasing challenge, not only in the context of healthcare but also in, for example, food safety and agriculture. The prevalence of resistant bugs such as MRSA has received widespread media coverage and the problems relating to resistance are now more widely recognised than ever before, as is the importance of developing new approaches, particularly given the increase in issues associated with multidrug resistant species. The current proposal seeks to drawn on wide-ranging applicable expertise in engineering and the physical sciences that, in collaboration with biological-science researchers, clinicians and industry, offers hitherto unexploited opportunities to contribute significantly to addressing these very significant challenges.We shall accordingly deliver a programme of activities that promotes new interdisciplinary collaborations across traditional boundaries between engineering, the physical sciences and the biological sciences. The University of Nottingham has an outstanding history of such discipline-bridging activities, as well as of research relevant to AMR, and will bring this experience to bear upon the challenge of AMR. The primary mechanism for promoting new research collaborations will be that of themed Sandpits, building on the success of the Mathematics-in-Medicine Study Groups pioneered by the University in 2000 (and subsequently spawning the Mathematics-in-the-Plant-Sciences Study Groups and others). In these, presenters from the biological sciences, clinical medicine or industry will describe issues that could benefit from new approaches drawn from engineering and the physical sciences; intensive brain-storming work on these topics will identify the skills needed and establish the relevant cross-disciplinary teams; seed funding will then be provided for the most promising projects identified. While the process is now well-established, the outcomes of such workshops are very far from predictable and the aggregation of the range of disciplines outlined above should ensure that innovative approaches come to the fore. Other mechanisms will include Challenge Days (modifying the successful approach of the Industry Challenge Days held by the Business School to ensure that research developments align with the needs of potential end users), discipline-hopping secondments, speed-networking sessions, cross-disciplinary workshops (focussing on specific methodologies, to enhance further the opportunities for identifying potential crossovers between research fields) and annual showcases in the form of a launch event and a concluding 'forward-look' workshop. These activities will be augmented by a Visiting-Scholar programme whereby leading experts in complementary areas will contribute their expertise to the initiative.Funding from the programme will be assigned in competition to multidisciplinary projects judged on their research excellence and their capacity to contribute to addressing AMR challenges. The programme's Strategy Group will be responsible for assessing applications and for monitoring progress; the activities outlined above are specifically designed (in particular by bringing together researchers from diverse disciplines) to ensure that the research ideas developed are highly innovative and that the associated projects have the required mix of research expertise. The programme will be very explicitly outward-facing, drawing extensively on input from clinicians, industrialists and other potential end users, as well as interacting with complementary research elsewhere. In combination with the excellence and innovation of the research developed, such collaborations will ensure the sustainability of the initiative.