Episode 4. Coll De Lima Hutchison & anthropology of microbes; fecal pollution & AMR; plasmid transfer in Acinetobacter.

Welcome to a new episode of The AMR Studio! This time, we have the interview we did with Dr. Coll De Lima Hutchison from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. We chatted with him about his work in anthropology, and got a good insight into the importance of cultural and historical backgrounds when trying to change behaviours. In our news section we bring to you the latest research on the presence of antibiotic resistance genes in the environment, and the transmission of plasmids between bacteria. 

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Relevant links:

• London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine: institution set to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working in partnership to achieve excellence in public and global health research, education and translation of knowledge into policy and practice.
• Antimicrobials in Society: fresh approaches to the study of antimicrobials in society. Online resource that brings together research relevant to AMR from across different social science disciplines.

Further Reading:

• Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance through Social Theory. An Anthropologically Oriented Report. Report by Dr. De Lima Hutchison et. al.
• Should Evolution Treat Our Microbes as Part of Us? Popular science article in Quantas Magazine about the Holobiont theory.
• Fecal pollution can explain antibiotic resistance gene abundances in anthropogenically impacted environments. Original article published in the Nature Communications journal.
• Antibiotic resistance in the environment linked to fecal pollution. Press coverage of the Nature paper.
• Multidrug-resistant plasmids repress chromosomally encoded T6SS to enable their dissemination. Original article published in the PNAS journal.
• To fight drug resistane, block how bacteria share it? Popular science article covering the PNAS article.
• WHO's 2019 19 Threats to Global Health. Official page.
• Superbugs and anti-vaxxers make WHO's list of 10 global health threats. News coverage of the WHO's list.
• UK’s plans to see antimicrobial resistance contained and controlled by 2040. Official page and documents of the UK announcemnt at the Davos forum.
• Superbugs 'as big a global threat as climate change and warfare'. News coverage of the UK's announcement.