Summary of Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance course 2022

The antibiotics and antibiotic resistance course in 2022 was held during 4-8 April at Hjortviken Konferens in Mölnlycke, Gothenburg. This course was co-organized by NDPIA and the Norwegian PhD School in Infection Biology and Antimicrobials (IBA).

Antibiotic resistance is a global public health concern that threatens the use of modern medical therapies to fight infectious diseases. The aim of this course was to introduce antibiotic resistance from a microbial perspective and from a clinical – One Health perspective. The fruitful collaboration between NDPIA and IBA made it possible to invite twenty-three national and international lecturers covering wide expertise in this field. The course provided an overview on the modes of action of antibiotics and how microbes resist the effects of antibiotics, on diagnostic methods to detect known and novel resistance genes, on the origins of resistance genes and the biological cost of resistance for the microbe, and on new antibiotic development and alternative therapeutics for infectious disease. In addition, ethics of antibiotic resistance management was also discussed.

Group photo of the participants and organizers of the Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance course in 2022. Photo: Hanna Eriksson.

“The opportunity to interact with the top-class lecturers in such a small group was amazing! Very high quality of the talks, I’m impressed!”

-Anonymous participant

Both NDPIA and IBA put a high value on the networking opportunities during their activities and the lectures were thus combined with poster sessions enabling the participants to present and discuss their own research. In addition, time was provided for informal discussions and to build national and international scientific networks between participants and lecturers.

“The enthusiasm of all the participants, both students and speakers, was amazing. All the topics were relevant and important to understand antibiotic resistance. It is a very insightful and complete course, which I believe is the most important strength of it. I also appreciated a lot that international speakers attended the talk, as well as some people from outside academia.”

-Anonymous participant

To see the full course program, please visit:  Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance course 2022 | NDPIA

Many thanks to the organizing committee:

Michael Koomey, University of Oslo, IBA National Coordinator

Tina Svingerud, University of Oslo, IBA Project Coordinator

Debra Milton, Umeå University, NDPIA National Coordinator

Arnfinn Sundsfjord, University of Tromso -The Arctic University of Norway

Carl-Fredrik Flach, University of Gothenburg, NDPIA Director of Studies

Diarmaid Hughes, Uppsala University

Helen Wang, Uppsala University, NDPIA Director of Studies

Johanna Ulrica Ericson, University of Tromso -The Arctic University of Norway

Ørjan Samuelsen, University of Tromso -The Arctic University of Norway

Hanna Eriksson, Umeå University, NDPIA Project Coordinator