MRC Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection

细菌感染继续在全世界造成巨大的人类痛苦和死亡。我们缺乏针对许多细菌性疾病的良好疫苗，而全球范围内抗药性细菌病原体的增长势头不减，令人担忧，这导致了许多高级别的国际行动呼吁。人们普遍认为，解决细菌感染的新方法将受益于对感染过程和相关免疫反应的更好理解。令人惊讶的是，尽管这个问题很重要，但伦敦帝国理工学院的MRC分子细菌学和感染中心（CMBI）是唯一一个专注于细菌感染研究的卓越研究中心（无论是在英国还是海外）。此外，人们相当担心英国训练有素的学者和临床医生在细菌感染生物学方面的研究事业的短缺。在过去的几年里，在帝国理工学院和MRC的支持下，CMBI已经发展成为该领域研究和培训的主要焦点。在接下来的五年里，我们的目标是重新调整我们的培训计划，并加强细菌生理学和发病机制、抗菌素耐药性、宿主免疫和微生物群等领域的研究主题--微生物群是自然栖息在我们体内的细菌群落，它们在与病原体的相互作用、抗生素耐药性的出现和宿主免疫功能方面发挥着至关重要但知之甚少的作用。支持这些研究主题将是一个特别强调单细胞分析。传统的细菌学研究涉及研究细菌种群-无论是在实验室培养基中生长还是在感染期间。然而，很明显，即使这些群体在遗传上是相同的，但其中的单个细菌细胞表现不同，这种变异性对感染的结果和抗生素耐药性的发展具有非常重要的意义。最近，通过开发新的专业技术和设备，对群体中单个细胞的大规模研究-单细胞分析-变得更加可行。为了支持和加强CMBI的这项研究，我们需要一套专用设备，用于可以安全处理人类病原体的环境。因此，我们建议建立一个高通量的单细胞分析设施。总之，我们的新目标是：（1）创建专注于AMR和微生物群的新研究团队;（2）保持对细菌生理学，发病机制和宿主免疫过程的机制理解的强烈关注;（3）建立高通量单细胞分析设施;（4）建立高通量单细胞分析设施。（4）与中心以外从事细菌性疾病其他方面工作的学术和临床同事建立强有力的地方、国家和国际合作，我们的目标是：（1）扩大我们非常成功的博士项目，这有助于国家在学术和临床上培养下一代研究人员;（2）建立一个明确的合作战略，使我们的发现能够在诊断、抗菌和疫苗等领域转化为实际效益。

Bacterial infections continue to cause immense human suffering and mortality throughout the world. We lack good vaccines for many bacterial diseases and the unabated, alarming worldwide rise in antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens has led to many high level international calls for action. It is widely appreciated that new ways to tackle bacterial infections will benefit from better understanding of the infectious processes and associated immune responses. Surprisingly, despite the importance of this problem, the MRC Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection (CMBI) at Imperial College London is the only research Centre of excellence focussing exclusively on bacterial infection research (either in the UK or overseas). Furthermore, there is considerable concern about the shortage of UK-trained academics and clinicians developing research careers in bacterial infection biology. Over the last few years, with Imperial College and MRC support, the CMBI has developed into a major focal point for research and training in this area. Over the next five years we aim to refocus our training programme and strengthen research themes in the areas of bacterial physiology and pathogenesis, AMR, host immunity and the microbiota - bacterial communities that naturally inhabit our bodies and which have crucial but poorly understood roles in their interactions with pathogens, the emergence of antibiotic resistance and in host immune function. Underpinning these research themes will be a special emphasis on single cell analysis. Traditional bacteriology research involves studying bacteria as populations - either during growth in laboratory media or during infection. However, it is clear that even though these populations can be genetically identical, individual bacterial cells within them behave differently, and this variability has very significant implications for the outcome of infections and the development of antibiotic resistance. Recently, the large-scale study of individual cells in a population - single cell analysis - has become more feasible through the development of new specialist techniques and equipment. To support and enhance this research in the CMBI we require a suite of dedicated equipment for use in an environment where human pathogens can be handled safely. Therefore, we are proposing to establish a high throughput single cell analysis facility. Together, our new objectives are to (1) create new research teams focussing on AMR and the microbiota; (2) maintain a strong focus on mechanistic understanding of processes governing bacterial physiology, pathogenesis and host immunity; (3) establish a high-throughput single cell analysis facility; (4) build strong local, national and international collaborations with academic and clinical colleagues outside the Centre who work on other aspects of bacterial disease, and with whom we can share expertise; (5) extend our highly successful PhD programme - which contributes to the national effort to train the future generation of researchers both academically and clinically; (6) exploit a clear partnering strategy so that our discoveries can be translated into practical benefit in areas such as diagnostics, antibacterials and vaccines.