MIMS Spotlight Series Extra: Meet Karsten Meier

In the frame of MIMS highlights World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021

Text written by Nóra Lehotai and Karsten Meier. 

This extra episode of the MIMS Spotlight Series is part of "MIMS highlights World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021" article series. Karsten joined MIMS in November 2018 to start his PhD studies here. He has German nationality and has been living in Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. His three brothers and parents are constantly cheering for him during running competitions and when he is not in the lab or out running, you can trust him with your pets, he will take good care of them.

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Antivirals and the lack of them- interview with Niklas Arnberg, virologist

In the frame of MIMS highlights World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021

Text written by Nóra Lehotai and Niklas Arnberg.

Niklas Arnberg is Professor of virology at the Department of Clinical Microbiology at Umeå University, Senior PI at MIMS and Chairman of the Virus and Pandemic Foundation (Pandemifonden). He is enthusiastic about the unique research environment in Umeå, a special island within academia, created by researchers from MIMS, UCMR, all life science departments at Umeå University, Region Västerbotten and Biobank Norr. He would like to encourage everyone to talk to each other, collaborate and discover foremost new antivirals together.

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Initiating a Swedish research network to fill the knowledge gap on Gram-negative drug resistant bacteria - interview with Irfan Ahmad, network coordinator

In the frame of MIMS highlights World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021

Text written by Nóra Lehotai and Irfan Ahmad.

Irfan Ahmad is the project leader of a Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) funded research network. The aim of the project is to connect different academic researchers working on antimicrobial systems at Umeå University and at Karolinska Institute. The network is studying the signalling pathways of bacteria, which can contribute to their intrinsic and adaptive drug resistance. They would like to bridge the knowledge gap in adaptive drug resistance and fitness properties of Gram-negative bacteria. In his role, he works as a visiting associate professor at the Department of Molecular Biology at Umeå University, associated with Prof. Bernt Erik Uhlin, the founding director of MIMS.

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World Antimicrobial Awareness Week-MIMS Spotlight Series: Meet Magnus Ölander

Text written by Nóra Lehotai and Magnus Ölander. Picture credits go to Magnus Ölander.

This episode of the MIMS Spotlight Series is part of "MIMS highlights World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021" article series. Magnus has Swedish nationality, lives with his wife and two sons in Umeå, has lived only in Sweden so far and he joined MIMS in October 2019 to work with MIMS group leader Barbara Sixt.

Can you tell us about your role at MIMS, what are you working on now?

I have been a postdoc in the Sixt lab for a couple of years now. I am working on a drug discovery project to find new compounds that can combat infection by Chlamydia trachomatis. Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate intracellular bacterium affecting a lot of people, resulting in more than 100 million cases per year globally. It is very common in Sweden as well, especially among young people since it causes a sexually transmitted disease (STD). It can be quite easily treated, but usually with broad-spectrum antibiotics. These antibiotics kill everything in an uncontrollable way, meaning that they wipe out the normal microbiota in our intestine. The microbiota recovers after a while, but it doesn't necessarily grow back in the same way it was before. We also don't really know the downstream effects of harming the microbiota. Another problem is that antibiotic treatment against C. trachomatis can increase the pressure for resistance development in other pathogenic bacteria that happen to be present.

Read more: World Antimicrobial Awareness Week-MIMS Spotlight Series: Meet Magnus Ölander

MIMS highlights World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021

Text written by Nóra Lehotai.

This year, the motto of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, celebrated each year between 18-24 November, is “Spread Awareness, Stop Resistance”.

Antimicrobials do wonders. We have antiviral, antibiotic and antifungal drugs and vaccines available. They protect against or cure infections which otherwise might prove to be deadly for humans, animals and plants. Penicillins and tetracyclines, some of the most commonly used antibiotics, save millions of lives every year. The discovery of antimicrobials revolutionized not only medicine but our food supply as well. However, with their use, especially misuse, we awoke the defense machinery of these microbes and they learned how to adapt to these agents. Another important problem is that we only have antiviral drugs against a few of all viruses that cause diseases in humans. We lack antiviral drugs against many hundreds of viruses that cause diseases in humans.

Read more: MIMS highlights World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021