Project @ IfH: Surveillance for Emerging Antimicrobial Resistance through Characterizati­on of the uncharted Environmental Resistome

SEARCHER is an international collaboration project spanning seven research groups in six countries, with wide-ranging expertise in clinical microbiology, epidemiology, environmental microbiology, bioinformatics, big data handling, taxonomy, metagenomics and – of course – antibiotic resistance.

The goal of SEARCHER is to characterize emergent antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment, which will allow for their inclusion into AMR surveillance and detection before they become clinical problems. To achieve this, we aim to use a variety of methods to identify novel ARGs, investigate their potential to transfer to pathogens, and pinpoint specific early warning indicators for emerging ARGs. To bring this knowledge to AMR monitoring, we will also improve monitoring protocols for AMR (such as those developed in EMBARK, see below) so that they can be quickly updated with novel ARGs,
define important settings where humans interact with environmental bacteria carrying novel ARGs by sampling locations at the interface of humans, animals and the environment, and provide resources for integration of emerging ARGs in routine AMR surveillance.

Our mission is that the program will result in an early warning system for emerging AMR threats. This system should be implementable in real-world surveillance in human, animal and environmental settings targeting applicability, affordability, and high information content.

For more information contact:

Uli Klümper, Alan X. Elena, David Kneis, Thomas Berendonk

or visit: https://antimicrobialresistance.eu/