Liverpool Celebrates Important Phase in Infectious Diseases Research

An ambitious new programme of AMR research, launched by Professor Dame Sally Davies, former Chief Medical Officer and current UK Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance at the University of Liverpool and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), was marked by the opening of the £3.5m National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratories at the Institutes’ Centre of Excellence in Infectious Diseases Research (CEIDR).

“Antimicrobial resistance is the crisis of our times. If we don’t take sufficient action now, then the number of drug-resistant infections we are already starting to see affecting patients in our hospitals and communities now will only continue to get worse. Routine operations such as hip replacements or organ transplants are already becoming riskier as bacteria become resistant to the antibiotics on which we have grown used to relying,” Professor Davies said.

“With Liverpool’s long and pioneering history in infectious diseases research and its considerable strengths in enabling sciences and technologies, CEIDR is in a prime position to contribute to the national and international agenda in AMR.”

With plans to address a range of infectious diseases challenges, CEIDR will concentrate efforts on the most pressing ‘grand challenges’ and threats to human health, beginning with AMR. Research goals include developing new antimicrobial molecules, vaccines and materials; personalising their use and ensuring they are used sustainably within populations.

Working in partnership with Liverpool Health Partners and bringing together a range of academic and industry expertise, planned projects include an innovative new ‘Liverpool Smart Antimicrobial System,’ which will deliver city-wide surveillance, evidence and feedback system to promote optimal antimicrobial use, detect AMR, support its management and much more.

Professor William Hope, Dame Sally Davies Chair in Antimicrobial Resistance at the University of Liverpool, has been appointed as CEIDR’s new academic Centre Director. With expertise covering drugs and antimicrobials, diagnostics, vector control products and vaccines, Dr Fiona Marston will continue to lead the centre’s well-established industrial partnership programme under the new name of CEIDR Innovations.