By Marie Ducrotoy, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Division of Infection and Pathway Medicine
The Antimicrobial Resistance Autumn School has kicked off in the picturesque setting of the Firbush Outdoor Activity Centre in the Scottish Highlands.
Twenty UK and Indian PhD students from diverse backgrounds met to apply interdisciplinary thinking to the increasingly worrying issue of antimicrobial resistance.
The students are spending a week (16-20 November) looking at new ways to combat drug-resistant infections.
Students getting to know each other during the icebreaker activity.
Till Bachmann and Shahida Syed from the Division of Infection and Pathway Medicine have organised an Antimicrobial Diagnostics Challenge for the students, aimed at promoting interdisciplinary thinking and international collaboration.
Dr Gyorgy Abel from Lahey Hospital and Harvard Medical School will join the group to provide his international clinical perspective.
Students also have the chance to attend a high profile series of seminars and discuss themes around AMR, diagnostics, innovation, interdisciplinary thinking and international collaboration.
Indian participants enjoying a visit to Stirling Castle on the way to the Firbush Outdoor Activity Centre.
AMR has been recognised as a growing threat to public health and economic growth, requiring a global response.
Diagnostics have an important role to play in coming up with the solutions to the AMR problem. The Autumn School seeks to galvanise the next generation of researchers into action surrounding this issue.
Student teams will develop ideas and proposals for innovative research and development on AMR diagnostics.
Proposal ideas will be presented at the end of the week and judged by a panel of international AMR experts.
As the teams got to work brainstorming their projects, it became apparent that there was incredible talent in one room.
Students brainstorm and share their ideas.
Already Indian and UK participants were sharing experiences and knowledge surrounding AMR, providing the competition the international dimension we had hoped for.
The interaction of participants with such wide ranging expertise (physics, bioengineering, microbiology, epidemiology, social sciences and clinical research), showed signs of promising and innovative ideas to come, so watch this space and keep up with the progress of our students and their project ideas!