New study to provide tools for more effective antibiotic development
European initiative COMBINE has launched a validation study of a model with the potential to streamline tests and development of new antibiotics. "We look forward to within the foreseeable future provide this tool to researchers working with a focus on antimicrobial resistance," says Lena Friberg, Professor at the Department of Pharmacy with a leading role in COMBINE.
(Image removed) Lena Friberg and Anders Karlén, Faculty of Pharmacy & COMBINE
Today, numerous international collaborations are underway with the goal of slowing down the accelerating antibiotic resistance. Among the central challenges is creating tools that facilitate the development of new drugs, and this week pan-European initiative COMBINE announced the launch of a validation study of an animal model of pneumonia that they have standardized with the aim to streamline tests and development of future antibiotics.
(Image removed) Anders Karlén, Coordinator, COMBINE
“An essential part of our mission is to contribute to the development of standardized methods and make them available to all operations committed to filling the pipeline with new antibiotics – and it inspires us to be part of this stakeholder community, working tirelessly to fight the challenges of antimicrobial resistance,” says Anders Karlén, Coordinator of COMBINE and Professor of Computer-aided drug design at Uppsala University.
COMBINE, a European collaboration with eleven partners from academia and pharmaceutical industry, is conducting the validation study in collaboration with CARB-X, CAIRD, iiCON and Pharmacology Discovery Services, four leading players in the field of antibiotics. To ensure reproducibility, parallel in vivo experiments are conducted at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark, the Paul-Erlich Insititut in Germany and global pharmaceutical company GSK.
(Image removed) Lena Friberg, Professor, Uppsala University
"The protocol that COMBINE has developed for the model works well with the isolates and antibiotics tested so far. Within the framework of the currently ongoing studies, we expect to fully characterize the model and look forward to provide the protocol to the researchers working with a focus on antimicrobial resistance, says Lena Friberg, Professor at Uppsala University and Head of COMBINE's efforts on translation.
FACTS
- The Collaboration for Prevention and Treatment of Multi-Drug Resistant Bacterial Infections (COMBINE) is a European collaboration with eleven partners from academia and the pharmaceutical industry that together pave the way for more efficient development of new antibiotics.
- Anders Karlén, Professor at Uppsala University, is the coordinator of COMBINE, which, among many things, provides coordination and support across the entire IMI-funded AMR Accelerator.
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CONTACT
(Image removed) Anders Karlén, Professor, Coordinator
COMBINE, Uppsala University
Anders.Karlen@ilk.uu.se
(Image removed) Lena Friberg, Professor
COMBINE, Uppsala University
Lena.Friberg@farmaci.uu.se
Text: Josepine Fernow, Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt m fl