The AMR Studio

Welcome to April dear listeners! In this episode, we bring you an interview with Dr. Alberto Antonelli, researcher at the University of Florence doing a very important job: taking care of testing and optimizing new diagnostic technologies in high AMR-impacted settings such as Italy. Tune in to listen his path to his research field, the challenges he faces and what we should be looking forward to in the future.

In the news section, we first cover a recent comment article by Otto Cars and Matti Karvanen presenting why the current way we talk and communicate about resistance is blocking global action, and a recent research article published by the group of our center’s director, investigating the mysterious, and sometimes fleeting, fitness of plasmids in different hosts. We hope you have a great time with us!

Check relevant links in the show notes at http://www.uac.uu.se/the-amr-studio/episode55. Follow our updates on twitter/X on http://www.twitter.com/uac_uu with #theAMRstudio hashtag!

Theme music by Henrik Niss: http://www.tinyurl.com/henriknissspotify.

After a short hiatus, we are back with our regular episodes, and with a pop-up guest co-host! Tune in to our first of 2024, where we learn about surveillance and use of health data for its automation with Suzanne Ruhe-van der Werff, research specialist at Karolinska Institutet. In this interview, we learn about Suzanne’s path from parasitology to infection prevention and control and talk about the future of infectious diseases and resistance surveillance through her current research, which looks into using artificial intelligence and algorithms that use patient health records.

In the news, we bring you two research articles, the first presenting the results of a preorganized antibiotic design to overcome resistance due to the way it binds to the ribosome, and the second looking into the mechanisms of species-species interaction between a probiotic and a pathogenic bacteria and how this knowledge led to an engineered probiotic better at preventing pathogen defenses. We hope you enjoy this episode!

Check relevant links in the show notes at http://www.uac.uu.se/the-amr-studio/episode54. Follow our updates on twitter/X on http://www.twitter.com/uac_uu with #theAMRstudio hashtag! Theme music by Henrik Niss: http://www.tinyurl.com/henriknissspotify.

How can we prevent antibiotic resistance together? For this World AMR Awareness Week 2023, we focus on this togetherness by highlighting Community Engagement in AMR, with 8 guests bringing us their perspectives on what communities and community engagement are, how community engagement can be essential on the road to mitigate the effects of resistance globally, and what they hope happens in this area in the short future.

We truly believe that meaningfully engaging communities and civil society actors in this field is an essential part in mitigating the effects of resistance worldwide, and that together we can make an impact. Because the community is all of us, the community is all of you.

Happy WAAW23!

Check out the show notes at http://www.uac.uu.se/the-amr-studio/episodex11/ and the whole episode transcript at https://bit.ly/epx11_transcript. Follow our updates on twitter/X on http://www.twitter.com/uac_uu with #theAMRstudio hashtag! Theme music by Henrik Niss: http://www.tinyurl.com/henriknissspotify.

Welcome to November! In this episode, we bring you the work of Álvaro San Millán, group leader at the National Center for Biotechnology in Spain, where he researches the role of plasmids in antibiotic resistance. In this interview, among other things, we talk about how understanding plasmid biology can lead to new ways of tackling resistance, and learn about his impressions of being a young group leader and setting up a multidisciplinary team.

In the news section, we are being very “communicative” this month, first covering a recent study looking at 6 different terms used in AMR communications in terms of being able to evoque risk and being remembered, and a paper published by CE4AMR, where they share their insights on what to include while co-creating solutions with communities, and why. We hope you have a great time with us!

Check relevant links in the show notes at http://www.uac.uu.se/the-amr-studio/episode53 . Follow our updates on twitter on http://www.twitter.com/uac_uu with #theAMRstudio hashtag! Theme music by Henrik Niss: http://www.tinyurl.com/henriknissspotify.

Welcome to a new episode, albeit the slight delay! Tune in this October to listen to Elin’s first interview ever! She had the chance to sit down and talk to Jakob Altgärde, infectious diseases physician with experience in hospital work around infections and resistance in both Sweden and Nepal. With him, we learn how an ID physician works day-to-day, and the main differences between Sweden and Nepal when it comes to his work and AMR.

In the news section, we first talk about a recent massive high-throughput screening done for drug combinations on gram positives (Bacillus, Staphylococcus & Streptococcus), and a thought piece by Claas Kirchhelle presenting the idea of the Antibiocene, a new geological era where AMR is the main signal of the phenotypic and genotypic changes that our microbial commons have suffered due to our relationship with antimicrobials. We hope you enjoy this hour with us!

*Note: at minute 15:27 “World Bank” is heard as “world-bike”.

Check relevant links in the show notes at http://www.uac.uu.se/the-amr-studio/episode52 . Follow our updates on twitter on http://www.twitter.com/uac_uu with #theAMRstudio hashtag! Theme music by Henrik Niss: http://www.tinyurl.com/henriknissspotify.

We are back from summer break with a new discipline at our studio, ethnobotany! Click play to hear about the work of ethnobotanist Cassandra Quave, a.k.a. The Plant Hunter, in her quest to find new antibiotics, anti-infectives, and biofilm inhibitors in plants used in traditional medicines around the world. We learn with her about the vast chemical world still yet to be studied, and how a horizontal lab works with its collaborators.

In the news section, we bring you two recent research articles looking into the effects of antibiotics in two different ways: how broad-spectrum antibiotics use can influence the growth of carbapenem-resistant enterobacteria, and how the presence of sub-MIC antibiotics changes the structure and diversity of river biofilms. Enjoy!

Check relevant links in the show notes at http://www.uac.uu.se/the-amr-studio/episode51. Follow our updates on Twitter/X at http://www.twitter.com/uac_uu with the #theAMRstudio hashtag! Theme music by Henrik Niss: http://www.tinyurl.com/henriknissspotify.

Welcome to our July episode, just before the holidays! This month, we bring you an interview with Sophia Wood, designer, and teacher at the Beckmans College of Design. Sophia led a group of design students through the “interdisciplinary waters” as they prepared to make an exhibition about AMR which they named “Are We There Yet?”. Tune in to learn about her background, their process, and what this exhibition is all about.

In the news section, we first bring you a scientific article about a compound reducing the mutagenesis that results from the use of ciprofloxacin, and two important news related to policy: a recommendation recently adopted by the Council of the European Union, and a priority research agenda brought forward by the World Health Organization. We hope you enjoy this month, we see you back in September. Have a lovely summer ahead!

Check relevant links in the show notes at http://www.uac.uu.se/the-amr-studio/episode50. Follow our updates on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/uac_uu with #theAMRstudio hashtag! Theme music by Henrik Niss: http://www.tinyurl.com/henriknissspotify.

June comes with a bang! Tune in to this episode to hear the insights of the incomparable Dame Sally Davies, former UK Chief Medical Officer and current UK Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance. We chat with her about her path to being a global advocate on AMR, the need for better global governance, and what her vast experience has taught her. Talking to her was a truly inspirational experience.​

In the news section, we bring you a very cool article using deep learning and computational methods (hello Artificial Intelligence!) to find a potential antibiotic against Acinetobacter baumanii, and a brief study presenting the results of a new antimicrobial susceptibility testing that is independent of growth by analyzing bacterial nano-movement

Check relevant links in the show notes at http://www.uac.uu.se/the-amr-studio/episode49. Follow our updates on twitter on http://www.twitter.com/uac_uu with #theAMRstudio hashtag! Theme music by Henrik Niss: http://www.tinyurl.com/henriknissspotify.

Spring is back in Sweden, and so are we in your ears! This month of May we bring you an interview with Anna Sjöblom, director of ReAct Europe, a branch of an international organization working to promote and deliver action on antibiotic resistance. We learn about Anna’s background, the path that led her to ReAct, and many of the activities that ReAct has done and have currently ongoing.

In the news section, we cover the latest expert policy brief published by ReAct, a recent article looking into how antibiotic use at a country level can affect the gut microbiome, and a study revealing that the evolutionary pathways of plasmids in a clinical setting might be more difficult to predict than previously thought. Thanks for tuning in!

Check relevant links in the show notes at http://www.uac.uu.se/the-amr-studio/episode48 . Follow our updates on twitter on http://www.twitter.com/uac_uu with #theAMRstudio hashtag! Theme music by Henrik Niss: http://www.tinyurl.com/henriknissspotify .

The AMR Studio goes on a field trip! Join our hosts Eva & Elin on their adventures in Copenhagen at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (a.k.a. ECCMID) this year. From 15th to 18th of April, more than 13.000 people came together to talk about the most recent advances in infectious diseases, including antimicrobial resistance. Listen to this special episode to peek into the crazy days that it was, and some of the things we learnt along the way.

Check out the show notes at http://www.uac.uu.se/the-amr-studio/episodex10/ . Follow our updates on twitter on http://www.twitter.com/uac_uu with #theAMRstudio hashtag! Music by Chillmore at Pixabay.