The Antibiotic Apocalypse

Paul is Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry at the University of Bristol. From 2014-17 he served as Co-Director of the >£14M Bristol Centre for Synthetic Biology Research (BrisSynBio), was a founding Director of the Bristol BioDesign Institute (BBI) and is academic lead for the >£2.7M EPSRC funded ‘Manufacturing Immortality’ project. His research focuses on the exploitation and manipulation of biological complexes, pathways and networks, en-route to the development of new tools, technologies and products for biotechnology.

Over the last 12 years that I have been practicing here in Bristol, AMR continue to be a major challenge that I face in day-to-day practice. This challenge has been steadily growing especially in the most vulnerable patients. The number of newer antibiotics which have been licenced for clinical use in the same period is negligible. It is like a double whammy. Looking at the trend, it is heading only one way, that is not good for the future, unless we take some drastic steps.

Darryl has focused on understanding the complex interplay of bacterial pathogens with the human body. Within his group, research focuses on a number of bacterial pathogens many of which are specific to humans and do not cause disease in other animals. Darryl will talk about aspects of his research identifying the Achilles heel of bacterial species in order to develop future vaccines and anti-infective strategies.