Bugs and drugs

Antibiotics and antibiotic resistance have been around for billions of years. In this talk, we will cover resistance mechanisms and the mobile genetic elements that often carry the genes encoding them. We will discuss where selection pressure in human or animal medicine might make the problem of resistance worse, and where an understanding of the biology of these systems might enable us to make the situation better.

The past four decades have seen the emergence of infectious diseases such as HIV, SARS and Ebola. While the emergence of new infections is likely to be a natural phenomenon, increased travel, migration, civil unrest, encroachment on animal habitats, living longer etc. are likely to facilitate both the emergence and transmission of these new infections. Hear about how these factors synergistically interact with pathogen biology and transmission dynamics to create modern pandemics.

Current treatments for Parkinson’s temporarily alleviate symptoms, but to date, there are no therapies capable of curing the disease. Drug development is both expensive and time consuming, taking around 15 years to bring a compound from the bench to patients. The process also requires animal research to meet UK regulations. In this talk I will describe efforts to address these issues by looking to drugs already available in pharmacies and screening whether they are suitable for Parkinson´s.