Saint AMR
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating antimicrobial resistance in human microbiomes in St Andrews and East Neuk
IRAS ID
346641
Contact name
Frank Sullivan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of St Andrews
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 31 days
Research summary
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites no longer respond to medicines, and is a major global public health challenge. Microbial communities in the environment serve as reservoirs of pathogenic bacteria and mixing grounds for sharing AMR genes. Our ultimate goal is to develop mitigation strategies for interrupting the flow of AMR between the environment and humans, and to make predictions to modulate human behaviour to favour health. This requires an interdisciplinary approach, involving medicine, biochemistry and microbiology to examine microbiomes, social sciences to examine human behaviour, and computational approaches to combine this information into models and make predictions. We have established a collaboration with local General Practitioners and their practices to gather information on antibiotic consumption, overall health, and patient faecal samples. We will determine microbial diversity, presence of AMR genes, bacteriophages, and several small molecules important for microbial competition and cooperation as well as for interaction with their hosts. We will apply machine learning and computational modeling approaches to these data to examine the role of microbiome composition and bacteriophages on microbial diversity and presence of AMR. We will combine patient data and samples with questionnaires regarding behaviours and attitudes towards antibiotics and interaction with the environment. We will develop further computational models connecting human behaviour and health to microbiome composition and AMR. This is a pilot study to test feasibility and acceptability, and generate initial results, that will inform subsequent, larger studies.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/YH/0208
Date of REC Opinion
11 Sep 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion