The World Health Organization calls antimicrobial resistance “one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today.” As harmful bacteria evolve resistance to the antibiotics we use to treat infections, medical costs climb, hospital stays lengthen, and the death toll from previously-treatable conditions increases. New antibiotics are needed to keep “superbugs” at bay.
Next week, June 21 and 22, experts in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will gather in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Discovery Building for a symposium focused on the impact of AMR across fields including healthcare, sports medicine, animal antibiotic use, and more. The event is hosted by Tiny Earth—an organization that crowdsources antibiotic discovery to introductory biology students around the world—and sponsored by the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies Catalent and Exact Sciences.
The symposium is the Midwest’s premier conference on AMR and antibiotic discovery, featuring experts including Spero Therapeutics Head of Biology Dr. Aileen Rubio and Senior Director of Medical Affairs, Microbiology, and Smarticles Technology at Roche Molecular Systems Dr. Michael Lewinski. In attendance will be more than 150 Tiny Earth students and partner instructors who will conclude the two-day symposium with visits to local biotech companies and the UW Athletic Department’s sports medicine facilities.
More information is available at tinyearth.wisc.edu/2018-symposium.
This post was edited to reflect the program’s new name: Tiny Earth.