{"id":9529,"date":"2024-11-04T12:49:43","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T02:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/?post_type=news&p=9529"},"modified":"2024-11-27T12:59:54","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T02:59:54","slug":"plasmid-therapy-a-new-approach-to-a-global-health-threat","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/news\/plasmid-therapy-a-new-approach-to-a-global-health-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Plasmid therapy: A new approach to a global health threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to the team, Dr Muhammad Kamruzzaman, Dr Alicia Fajardo Lubian, Associate Professor Sally Partridge and Professor Jon Iredell, from the Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Research Centre at WIMR, who have been awarded $1,994,553 as part of the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Global Health Initiative.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The funding will be used to advance the team\u2019s research that uses Plasmid Therapy to manage antibiotic resistance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The project, titled\u00a0\u2018Managing mobile antibiotic resistance: tracking and evicting plasmids\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0will develop simple, new diagnostic tools to track antibiotic resistance and test the Plasmid Therapy approach to eradicate antibiotic resistance in humans.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

According to the World Health Organization, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is one of the top global threats to public health. It is estimated that, in 2019, bacterial AMR was responsible for 1.27 million global deaths and contributed to 4.95 million deaths.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Plasmids are small DNA molecules that are found in bacteria.\u00a0 Some of the deadliest bacteria use plasmids to share their genes. This includes the major resistance genes that allow bacteria to defeat evade antibiotic treatment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Plasmid Therapy, which involves genetically modifying plasmids, offers new, safe, scalable, and affordable solutions to eradicate antimicrobial resistance genes from bacterial populations without disturbing the bacteria themselves or driving resistance adaptations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr Muhammad Kamruzzaman is a Senior Scientist at WIMR\u2019s Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, and a leader of the Plasmid Therapy research team says, \u201cWe have constructed genetically modified (GM) therapeutic plasmids that can be used to cure antibiotic resistance plasmids from bacteria in humans, animals and environmental ecosystems. We have also developed GM-probiotic plasmids to protect bacteria from acquiring antibiotic resistance plasmids.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThis procedure cures antibiotic resistance without killing the host bacterial populations, preserving the microbiota and preventing damage to the gut microbial ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Professor Jon Iredell, Director of WIMR\u2019s Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Research Centre says, \u201cWe are incredibly grateful for this MRFF grant that recognises the potential of Plasmid Therapy and supports our research efforts to eradicate AMR, and potentially save millions of lives globally.\u201d<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a>\u00a0https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/fact-sheets\/detail\/antimicrobial-resistance<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to the team, Dr Muhammad Kamruzzaman, Dr Alicia Fajardo Lubian, Associate Professor Sally Partridge and Professor Jon Iredell, from the Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Research Centre at WIMR, who have been awarded $1,994,553 as part of the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Global Health Initiative.   The funding will be used to advance the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":8120,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-9529","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/9529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}