Antimicrobial Resistance and Therapeutic Discovery Training Program

Emory University, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Enter the text here that is the new abstract information for your application. Efforts to combat AMR must be prioritized if the threat of a return to the pre-antibiotic era is to be averted, given the reduced number of new effective antimicrobials (antibiotics, antifungals, and antivirals) that have entered clinical practice in the past two decades and the resulting dwindling options for treatment of some infections. Essential to any future efforts to meet the challenge of AMR is the interdisciplinary training of the next generation of researchers, who are broadly educated and prepared to address the issues of AMR, antimicrobial discovery and development, and vaccinology, to prevent or treat infections for which antimicrobial therapies are absent or becoming ineffectual. The Antimicrobial Resistance and Therapeutic Discovery Training Program (ARTDTP) was established at Emory University in 2014 to meet this urgent need through the training of predoctoral (PhD) students. The continuation of ARTDTP through this renewal will help to ensure that a cadre of investigators will be available in the future to combat the global health problem of AMR. ARTDTP will support six PhD candidates each year, drawn from one of four graduate programs within Emory’s Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences or the Department of Chemistry graduate program. ARTDTP faculty preceptors are well-funded, highly collaborative, and experienced mentors, who hold academic appointments in basic science and clinical departments of the School of Medicine and the Emory College of Arts and Sciences. Trainees will be supported for a two-year period, during which they will complete specialized research training in an area related to ARTDTP’s research themes in pathogen biology, AMR mechanisms, and therapeutic discovery through chemical or immunologic-based strategies. A critical complement to this training is ARTDTP’s interdisciplinary program of educational and programmatic events, emphasizing the contributions of the multiple scientific disciplines essential to efforts to combat AMR, as well as exposure to its clinical and “real world” impacts. ARTDTP-specific initiatives and other university-based programs will be used to support the recruitment and retention of trainees with distinct prior research experiences and training discipline backgrounds. Importantly, all ARTDTP trainees will also receive education in the essential concepts of rigor, reproducibility and ethics in science that are essential for all careers in the biological and biomedical fields. ARTDTP will be governed by a Steering Committee and evaluated twice during the period of award by an External Advisory Board and by trainees at multiple time points from appointment to post-graduation. Through participation in ARTDTP, trainees will acquire in-depth research training that positions them to assume postdoctoral and other research positions in academia, government or industry, as well as the shared knowledge and common language that will enable successful careers in interdisciplinary biomedical research related to AMR.