Objective
Main goal. We aim to understand the puzzling coexistence of antibiotic-resistant and antibiotic-sensitive species in natural soil environments, using novel quantitative experimental techniques and mathematical analysis. The ecological insights gained will be translated into novel treatment strategies for combating antibiotic resistance.
Background. Microbial soil ecosystems comprise communities of species interacting through copious secretion of antibiotics and other chemicals. Defence mechanisms, i.e. resistance to antibiotics, are ubiquitous in these wild communities. However, in sharp contrast to clinical settings, resistance does not take over the population. Our hypothesis is that the ecological setting provides natural mechanisms that keep antibiotic resistance in check. We are motivated by our recent finding that specific antibiotic combinations can generate selection against resistance and that soil microbial strains produce compounds that directly target antibiotic resistant mechanisms.
Approaches. We will: (1) Isolate natural bacterial species from individual grains of soil, characterize their ability to produce and resist antibiotics and identify the spatial scale for correlations between resistance and production. (2) Systematically measure interactions between species and identify interaction patterns enriched in co-existing communities derived from the same grain of soil. (3) Introducing fluorescently-labelled resistant and sensitive strains into natural soil, we will measure the fitness cost and benefit of antibiotic resistance in situ and identify natural compounds that select against resistance. (4) Test whether such “selection-inverting” compounds can slow evolution of resistance to antibiotics in continuous culture experiments.
Conclusions. These findings will provide insights into the ecological processes that keep antibiotic resistance in check, and will suggest novel antimicrobial treatment strategies.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy drug resistance antibiotic resistance
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
ERC-2011-StG_20101109
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Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Host institution
32000 Haifa
Israel
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.