EMBRACE Workshop
"Tackling the Global Challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance" EMBRACE Workshop and Dragons Den Competition
We are currently facing a global challenge of increased resistance to antibiotics, which will result in the lack of effective therapies for infection and an extra 10 million deaths globally by 2050. EMBRACE aims to address the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by bridging the gaps between Engineering, Medicine and the Natural and Physical Sciences to facilitate collaborative and multidisciplinary research.
This educational workshop will introduce the challenges we are facing in AMR and how multidisciplinary research spanning Engineering, Medicine, Physical and Natural Sciences can help solve this problem. Attendees will have the opportunity to become familiarised with the challenges in AMR through a series of presentations by the EMBRACE pump priming and sandpit awardees. Following the afternoon’s presentations, we will host a Dragons Den Competition followed by a networking event and BBQ where attendees will have the opportunity to interact with our cohort of experienced multidisciplinary researchers working in the field of AMR.
Dragons Den Competition
We are inviting PhD students and early career post-doctoral researchers, either as individuals or groups, to give a 5 minute “Dragons Den” style pitch to a panel of experts as to how their research can contribute to addressing the challenge of AMR. Interested participants are invited to submit an abstract (200 words max, PDF format) on how their approach could achieve this. The presentation can be done solo or in a group and the winners will receive £1000 funding from EMBRACE and mentorship from world experts in the field towards implementing their idea and furthering their career through potential applications for funding. You are encouraged to discuss your application with your supervisor/line manager before you apply.
Proposed projects should be multidisciplinary in nature and within the EPSRC remit:
https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/files/funding/calls/2014/opportunities-for-eps-to-contribute-to-amr/
This remit includes but is not limited to:
1. Novel diagnostics
2. Improved drug delivery strategies for antimicrobials
3. Novel synthetic approaches and innovative manufacture and scale up of new drugs and vaccines
4. Smart surfaces and dressings to prevent infection
5. Minimally invasive surgical techniques
6. Surveillance technologies and data analytics
7. Water treatment technologies
8. Tools for understanding bacteriology
Evaluation Criteria
You will be presenting a 5 minute Dragons Den pitch to a panel of experts demonstrating how your research could contribute to addressing the challenge of AMR. It is expected that your proposed project should be multidisciplinary and align with one or more of the four main themes in the EPSRC AMR strategy (https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/files/funding/calls/2014/btgamrcall/):
- Theme 1: Understanding the resistant bacteria
- Theme 2: Accelerating therapeutic and diagnostics development
- Theme 3: Understanding the real-world interactions
- Theme 4: Behaviour within and beyond the healthcare setting
Important dates
Abstract submission by 30 June 2017 to be emailed to joao.reis@imperial.ac.uk
Invitations to Dragons Den by 4 July 2017
EMBRACE workshop/Dragons Den presentations 14 July 2017
Date/Time: Friday 14th July 2016, 2pm-6pm
Open to all Imperial students and staff
Programme
2.00 - Welcome; Professor Alan Armstrong
2.05 - Introduction to the Global Challenge of AMR; Professor Alison Holmes
2.15 - Introduction to EMBRACE; Dr Pantelis Georgiou
2.25 - Session 1: EMBRACE Pump Priming & Sandpit awards; Chair - Professor Alan Armstrong
2.30 - EMBRACE Sandpit award: Promoting Immune Clearance of Bacterial Pathogens; Dr Andrew Edwards
2.45 - EMBRACE Pump Priming award: Rapid Evaporative Ionisation Mass Spectrometry for Early detection of Antimicrobial Resistance; Dr Simon Cameron
3.00 - EMBRACE Pump Priming award: Antimicrobial resistance in gut communities; Dr Lesley Hoyles
3.15 - EMBRACE Pump Priming award: LIPID-MINDS: Lipid Mapping to Identify Novel Drug Solutions; Dr Gerald Larrouy-Maumus
3.30 - EMBRACE Pump Priming award: Real-time Enhanced Antimicrobial ConTroller (REACT); Dr Pau Herrero-Viñas
3.45 - Refreshments
4.00 - Session 2: Dragons Den; Chairs & Dragons - Professor Alison Holmes; Professor Alan Armstrong; Dr Pantelis Georgiou; Sivaramesh Wigneshweraraj; Jon Wilkinson
4.05 - Developing “smart” antimicrobial surfaces to reduce the transmission of antibiotic-resistant hospital pathogens; Jon Otter
4.15 - Which role for Horizontal Gene Transfer in the spread of antimicrobial resistance?; Alice Ledda
4.25 - CMOS-based device for pathogen-antibiotic susceptibility testing; Nick Moser
4.35 - Engineering rapid and sensitive diagnostics for malaria; Kenny Malpartida
4.45 - FeedBac; James Hindley
4.55 - Detecting PR directly on intact bacteria using MALDI-TOF; Martina Valentini
5.05 - T-Beat, a novel diagnostic chip; Eric; Yi-Lang Shen
5.15 - Closing words
5.25 - EMBRACE BBQ Networking event & prize giving; EEE-Foyer