Overview and Report
The AMR DxC Autumn School 2015 in Edinburgh
As a pilot event to the main AMR DxC Competition, we were hosting an AMR DxC Autumn School in Edinburgh aimed at PhD students at British and Indian universities.
The main aims of the Autumn School were
- Promote interdisciplinary thinking and international collaboration for AMR diagnostics
- Identify potential ambassadors for team formations in UK and India for the 2016 AMR DxC comeptition
- Promote interaction between potential AMR DxC competitors and the AMR experts
- Identify the overall feasibility AMR DxC for the participants and the organisers
In an open call, 18 PhD students from Indian and British higher education institutions were selected on the basis of their motivation, experience and field of work to ensure interdisciplinarity and reach.
The students had the chance to attend a high profile series of seminars and discuss with international AMR experts themes around AMR, diagnostics, innovation, interdisciplinary thinking, international collaboration and AMR DxC. The Autumn School coincided with other AMR events in Scotland and we offered sponsored registrations for Autumn School attendees to the FIS 2015: Action on Infection Conference in Glasgow (21-23 November).
AMR DxC Autumn School went a step further and tried to build new ideas that would transcend disciplines
| Prefix | First Name | Surname | Department | University | Area of Research | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ms | Isabel | Alves | Chemical Engineering Department | Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK | Bioengineering / Microfluidics | |
| Ms | Rebecca | Brouwers | Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems | University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK | Physics | |
| Mr | David | Ferrier | Institute for Integrated Micro & Nano Systems | University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK | Engineering, Chemistry | |
| Mr | Chandradhish | Ghosh | Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry Laboratory | Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, India | Drug development | |
| Ms | Nicola | Goddard | Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering | Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK | Bioengineering / Microfluidics | |
| Mr | Bernard | Hernández | Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology, Electrical and Electronic Engineering | Imperial College London, London, UK | Engineering, Medicine, Social Sciences | |
| Ms | Natnipat | Hongsawed | Innogen Institute | University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK | Social Sciences | |
| Mr | Veerendra Kalyan | Jagannadh | Department of Instrumentation & Applied Physics | Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India | Applied physics | |
| Ms | Shraddha | Karve | Division of Biology | Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISERS), Pune, Inida | Evolutionary biology | |
| Ms | Surbhi | Khurana | Department of Laboratoy Medicine | All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India | Microbiology | |
| Ms | Pratibha | Kohli | Department of Microbiology | SRM University, Haryana, India | Nanomaterials, Infection Control | |
| Mr | Daniel | Macdonald | Centre for Molecular Nanometrology | University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK | Diagnostics | |
| Mr | Alok Kumar | Mishra | Division of Microbiology, Central Drug Research Institute | Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Lucknow, India | Microbiology | |
| Ms | Poulami | Mukherjee | BioMedical Genomics Centre | National Institue of Biomedical Genomics (NIBG), Kolkata, India | Clinical | |
| Mr | Eleojo | Obaje | Division of Infection and Pathway Medicine | University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK | Diagnostics | |
| Ms | Anuradha | Pal | Biological Sciences Division | Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Hyderabad, India | Diagnostics | |
| Ms | Saranya | Vijayakumar | Department of Clinical Microbiology | Christian Medical College, Vellore, India | Microbiology | |
| Mr | Stavros | Yika | Centre for Biological Engineering | Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK | Bioengineering / Microfluidics | |
Before attending, I had viewed (…) AMR purely from the perspective of a technical problem, whereas now I understand that the technical aspects are just one small part of a much wider and more complex challenge
Autumn School Dates
-
16 - 20 November 2015
Venue
The Autumn School took place in two locations within Scotland
- Edinburgh University: Participants were based in the city; activities could be combined with lectures and visits around the city.
- Firbush Outdoor Centre: Participants were based in a highland retreat; lectures and interaction could occur without distractions in combination with outdoor activities.
Coinciding Events
Attendees of the AMR DxC Autumn School had access to
- AMR DxC Panel Discussion with international experts: The Challenges of AMR and the Opportunities in Diagnostics
- Edinburgh Infectious Diseases (EID) Winter Lecture: Ramanan Laxminarayan (CDDEP, Washington DC) - The state of the world's antibiotics
- Edinburgh AMR Forum (EAMRF) Seminar: The Relevance of Host-Pathogen Interactions in the Context of Antibiotic use and AMR
- FIS 2015: Action on Infection Conference, Glasgow
The AMR DxC Autumn School had been covered on the India blog of the University of Edinburgh
Report of the AMR DxC Winter School
The participants took part a variety of activities including lectures, discussion, seminars, networking events as well as an AMR DxC pilot exercise.
Day 1
The first day was focussed on setting the scene for AMR diagnostics which was kicked off by Till Bachmann (University of Edinburgh, UK), who introduced the AMR DxC competition and then dwelled deeper into the challenges for development of rapid diagnostics for AMR. Gyorgy Abel (Lahey Hospital & Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, MA, USA) contrasted this with an overview on the opportunities for rapid point of care testing (POCT). The following activities enabled the students to network and get to know each other and their respective research with well-though out icebreaker exercises. The day was ended with introduction to the AMR DxC pilot exercise and the students were further divided into bilateral teams of four students. Modelled after the AMR DxC competition, this theoretical exercise aimed at enabling the students to experience an AMR DxC competition (on a smaller scale) and to make them think about innovative solution, interdisciplinary approached, international collaboration, feasibility of the 2016 AMR DxC competition, impact that the students can generate as well as communication and team work. It furthermore gave an opportunity for the students to interact with the AMR DxC experts.
Briefly, the task of each team was to develop a project plan according to the criteria of the AMR DxC competition in order advance the next generation of AMR diagnostics to tackle AMR. Any interdisciplinary approach or solution was acceptable and each team was furthermore assigned and mentor to keep them on track. At the end of the weak, the students were tasked with presenting their project plans to the AMR DxC experts.
Day 2
The second day students mainly brainstormed on their ideas for the AMR DxC pilot exercise and started to develop their project plans. To further motivate the students, Louise Horsfall (University of Edinburgh, UK) gave an overview of the impact that students can make by participating in competitions, such as the AMR DxC, by using successful examples from the International Genetically Engineering Machine (iGEM) as an example. This was followed by a roundtable discussion around the question of “What impact can you make as a student who is a part of a bilateral team with a three month project, such as the AMR DxC competition?”. The strongest suggestions included boosting the economy by providing cost-effective solutions to the AMR problem, raising awareness and the profile of AMR in the wider community, enabling new collaborations, enhance data collection by contribution to data bases and sharing. The day was finished with outdoor activities, including kayaking, cycling and mountain biking in the Scottish highlands.
Day 3
The third day, and for the rest of the week, the Autumn School moved back to the bustling city environment in Edinburgh. The first session introduced various perspectives on AMR diagnostics specifically focussing on a physics, finance and clinical aspects. Wilson Poon (University of Edinburgh, UK) gave an enlightening talk about the uncertainty of minimum inhibitory concentration experiments – vital for the antimicrobial resistance research – using the antimicrobial peptide pexiganan on Esherischia coli as an example. Based on his experience in the drug development industry, Jack Scannell (Innogen Institute, UK) explained why good diagnostics fail by reviewing the regulatory, development and financial aspects, while Kate Templeton (Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, UK) gave an insight in the routine diagnostics and clinical side of AMR diagnostics at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. To contrast routine diagnostics with diagnostics development in academia, the students were given a tour in the very same routine diagnostics laboratory at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh where Kate Templeton emphasised the need for a sample to answer system for rapid diagnosis. Holger Schulze (University of Edinburgh, UK) and Antonio Liga (Heriot- Watt University, UK) at the Division of Infection and Pathway Medicine showcased cutting-edge research on rapid electrochemistry-based DNA diagnostics utilising screen-printed electrodes and blood plasma separation chambers for the integration onto biomarker detection and diagnosis platforms.
The day was concluded by the students attending an open seminar organised by the Edinburgh AMR Forum , together with the Centre for Inflammation Research at the University of Edinburgh, on understanding host-pathogen interactions in the context of AMR. Kev Dhaliwal presented a new technology, molecular alveoscopy, which enables detection of bugs causing disease in the lungs, while Sarah Walmsley is trying to answer the questions “Why do you die with pneumonia, could it be because of hypoxic state?” by using mouse models. The session ended with Deepankar Datta who presented his research that was concerning with the immune monitoring for sepsis prediction.
Day 4
Day four started bright and early with a much-appreciated session on translation and industrial development for AMR diagnostics. The session was opened by Joyce Tait (Innogen Institute, UK) with a strong message that science is currently not being translated into innovative products and processes and urged for a change in standards to smarter and more efficient regulation. As a case study, she used the regulation-innovation interaction in the development of novel antimicrobial drugs. Paul Chapman (Marks & Clerk LLP, UK), on the other hand gave an excellent overview of essential intellectual property (IP) knowledge that any budding entrepreneur should possess. Two cases studies finished this sessions and were presented by Ian A Wilson (Edinburgh Molecular Imaging, UK) on the commercialisation of in vivo molecular imaging and Micah Atkins (MiniFAB Europe, UK) on overcoming the diagnostics device product development challenge by utilising microfluidics. The afternoon was filled by two open seminars. The Autumn School participants first attended a Panel Discussion on Challenges of AMR and Opportunities in Diagnostics, organised under AMR DxC, which featured a panel of five international AMR experts: Abdul Ghafur (AMR DxC Expert), Rosanna Peeling (AMR DxC Expert), Penny Wilson (AMR DxC Expert), Ramanan Laxminarayan (Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), Washington, DC/New Delhi, USA/India) and Gyrogy Abel (AMR DxC Expert). This well-attended seminar (~60 attendees) experienced a heated debate, moderated by Till Bachmann (University of Edinburgh, UK), on how to best tackle AMR utilising diagnostics. After a 5-7 min presentation by each panel member, the audience were given the opportunity to ask questions and the main messages were (1) the need for a political solution to solve AMR – not just a scientific one (Abdul Ghafur); (2) for the development of diagnostics, we need to work with UN and other agencies to do trials in the field, develop guidelines and define cost-effectiveness for introduction of new diagnostics (Rosanna Peeling); (3) we need a better use of data by developing devices that can deliver results to a central service (Penny Wilson); (4) behaviour change with regards to prescription and use of antibiotics is key since all 6 billion people on this planet will not have access to diagnostics (Ramanan Laxminarayan). Ramanan Laxminarayan further elaborated in this very point at the final session of the fourth day – the Edinburgh Infectious Diseases Winter Lecture 2015. The Autumn School participants (students, experts, speakers and organisers) concluded this day with the AMR DxC Autumn School Dinner which comprised valuable lessons on Scottish traditions!
Day 5
The fifth and final day was mainly concerned with students’ presentations and feedback. Till Bachmann (University of Edinburgh, UK) welcomed all students and experts to the culminating day of the Autumn School week – the AMR DxC Pilot Gathering. In their bilateral teams, the students presented their ideas and project plan to the panel of AMR DxC Experts. Students demonstrated tremendous capacity to work across disciplinary divides and showed ability to design innovative solutions. Teams were given 10 minutes for their project plan presentation and 10 minutes for discussion. Below is a concise summary of the presented ideas:
- Team 1 – Bacteria or Virus? Differentiating between infection types using host microRNA response
- Team 2 – Aptasensor-based detection system for drug resistant tuberculosis (TB)
- Team 3 – Heat On
- Team 4 – MUTI (Microfluidics and genomic to standardise UTI diagnosis)
- Team 5 – Red Queen
After thorough deliberation by the AMR DxC Experts, Team 3 (Heat On) was awarded the AMR DxC Pilot prize. This was based on the receiving the best score for the following criteria: Issue, Innovation, Approach, Bilateral Team, Interdisciplinarity, Impact, Presentation and Discussion. The experts emphasised that they were very impressed that Team 3 were able to create something that thoroughly convinced the Panel in such a short time. They further applauded them for the innovative idea and excellent group dynamics. The final session of the Autumn School engaged and activated the students in a roundtable discussion on the feasibility of the AMR DxC competition and closing of the AMR DxC Autumn School 2015. To signify the last day, the Global Health Academy at the University of Edinburgh threw a reception for the Autumn School participants, which was very well received.
In a lottery, seven Autumn School participants had been randomly selected to further attend the FIS2015 Action on Infection Conference in Glasgow (21-23 November 2015). Albeit tired after a week-long of activities, the selected students attended lectures learned about the clinicians’ perspective on AMR and how to best tackle this threat. Moreover, one Indian student (Poulami Mukherjee) participated in the poster presentation session where she presented her work on diabetic foot ulcer infections and the formation of biofilms.