Antibiotic resistance, drug resistance, AMR, Superbugs - whatever you call it, world authorities and scientists are warning of a post-antibiotics era, where the drugs we have come to rely on no longer work.

Australian biotech company, Lixa, is on a mission to spread awareness of this growing threat. Last month the company ran the AMR Awareness Mission, running events in Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney with the aim to boost awareness and bring together the public, scientists, clinicians and patients to discuss what to do next. Each event included a screening of the deeply moving patient journey documentary "Salt in My Soul", which followed the life of Mallory Smith, a young woman with cystic fibrosis who lost her life to a resistant infection.

Each screening was followed by a discussion between the audience and a panel of international and local experts. This podcast is a recording of that conversation in Melbourne, where the experts included:

Diane Shader Smith - Mother of Mallory Smith and an expert publicist/writer turned AMR speaker and advocate. Since Mallory’s passing, Diane has pivoted her career as a writer and fundraiser to travelling around the world, including to the White House, sharing Mallory’s story to raise awareness for AMR.

Dr Richard Alm - Chief Scientist at CARB-X. CARB-X is one of the largest global funders for novel therapies to treat, diagnose or prevent antimicrobial infections.

Dr Maud Eijkenboom - CEO and Co-Founder of Lixa, a biotech company working on antibiofilm solutions. Maud has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical, med-tech, consumer healthcare and cosmetic sectors. She also has her own lived experience as the mother of a child with AMR health concerns.

Professor Anton Peleg - Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at The Alfred Hospital,  Professor of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology and Leader in the Centre to Impact Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) at Monash University. Anton completed a Masters of Public Health at Harvard and a PhD in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology and now is an active clinician working in transplant infectious diseases and hospital-acquired infections.

Professor Trevor Lithgow – Director of the Monash Centre to Impact AMR, which he established in 2020 as the founding Director. Trevor also leads the Bacterial Cell Biology lab in the Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University.

Dr Julia Cianci - Program Leader for Medical Countermeasures at Health Security Systems Australia (HSSA), a division of DMTC Ltd. The portfolio includes development of products and systems for the protection of military and civilian personnel against chemical, biological and radiological threats, emerging infectious diseases and pandemics.

Antibiotic resistance, drug resistance, AMR, Superbugs - whatever you call it, world authorities and scientists are warning of a post-antibiotics era, where the drugs we have come to rely on no longer work.

Australian biotech company, Lixa, is on a mission to spread awareness of this growing threat. Last month the company ran the AMR Awareness Mission, running events in Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney with the aim to boost awareness and bring together the public, scientists, clinicians and patients to discuss what to do next. Each event included a screening of the deeply moving patient journey documentary "Salt in My Soul", which followed the life of Mallory Smith, a young woman with cystic fibrosis who lost her life to a resistant infection.

Each screening was followed by a discussion between the audience and a panel of international and local experts. This podcast is a recording of that conversation in Sydney, where the experts included:

Diane Shader Smith - Mother of Mallory Smith and an expert publicist/writer turned AMR speaker and advocate. Since Mallory’s passing, Diane has pivoted her career as a writer and fundraiser to travelling around the world, including to the White House, sharing Mallory’s story to raise awareness for AMR.

Dr Richard Alm - Chief Scientist at CARB-X. CARB-X is one of the largest global funders for novel therapies to treat, diagnose or prevent antimicrobial infections.

Dr Maud Eijkenboom - CEO and Co-Founder of Lixa, a biotech company working on antibiofilm solutions. Maud has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical, med-tech, consumer healthcare and cosmetic sectors. She also has her own lived experience as the mother of a child with AMR health concerns.

Professor Jon Iredell - Infectious Diseases Physician and Microbiologist who spends half his time at Westmead hospital in a combined Infectious Diseases/Microbiology Department and half his time in research supported by NHMRC at the University of Sydney.

Dr Ameneh Khatami - Senior lecturer in Adolescent and Child Health at The University of Sydney and a paediatric infectious diseases specialist at The Children's Hospital at Westmead.

Dr Ruby Lin (moderator) - Deputy Director of Phage Australia, a national network of phage researchers and clinician scientists who aim to professionalise phage therapy as the third major intervention for infectious diseases.