Description du projet
Caractérisation microbienne à faible coût dans les régions reculées
Les infections bactériennes constituent un problème de santé important et l’émergence d’espèces résistantes aux antibiotiques appelle un diagnostic rapide. Les méthodes actuelles d’analyse de la sensibilité aux antibiotiques nécessitent un équipement coûteux, prennent du temps et sont sujettes à une contamination croisée. Financé par le Conseil européen de la recherche, le projet MuFLOART propose de développer un dispositif de photométrie à faible coût capable de quantifier les phénotypes microbiens. de manière efficace. Ce dispositif permettrait d’étudier les taux de croissance microbienne, l’efficacité métabolique et la sensibilité aux antibiotiques, facilitant ainsi le phénotypage de la résistance aux médicaments dans des zones géographiquement reculées. L’équipe développe actuellement deux prototypes et souhaite lever des fonds pour finaliser sa conception et effectuer des tests sur le terrain dans des laboratoires de recherche et des écoles au Royaume-Uni.
Objectif
The accurate quantification of microbial populations is critical for understanding how microbes evolve and adapt to stressful environments. This, in turn, can help improve rationales for drug deployment aimed at minimising the evolution of antibiotic resistance. Working on ERC-funded research into how microbial communities optimise their virulence traits and mediate drug-resistance, our team identified a need for a low cost photometry device capable of high-throughput quantification of microbial phenotypes such as microbial growth rates and metabolic efficiencies; microbial dose responses and susceptibility to antibiotics; antibiotic interactions datasets; microbial individuality and heterogeneity data and population mean gene expression profiles for fluorescently labeled genes. There are multiple positive consequences of having these capabilities at low cost: we can create high-throughput data pipelines for microbiology research, particularly for evolutionary studies or phenotypic screens; we can improve the dissemination of high-quality phenotypic data analysis algorithms (such as synergy tests for antibiotics) and so provide standardisation for those phenotypic assays; schools can benefit from the low-costs laboratory hardware and bring data analysis for microbiology into their mathematics, biology or computer science teaching; our lightweight devices with small footprints can be used to access geographically hard-to-reach areas where drug resistance phenotyping could be conducted using either battery or solar power. We are, therefore, now in the process of creating two prototypes that can perform these functions and we are seeking funding to finalise their design and field test the devices in three different settings: a partner research laboratory studying microbial evolution, a hospital research laboratory studying antimicrobial resistance and finally schools in a top-10 deprived area of the UK that cannot afford biotechnology equipment for teaching science.
Champ scientifique
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdata science
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsantibiotics
- natural sciencesmathematics
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiology
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug resistanceantibiotic resistance
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-POC - Proof of Concept GrantInstitution d’accueil
EX4 4QJ Exeter
Royaume-Uni