The Problem of Antibiotic Resistance - all lectures
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a global crisis that threatens many modern medical interventions. Antibiotic resistance is a multifaceted problem and a range of scientists in many disciplines have joined to address this issue. This course will describe the basic biology of the problem, approaches to limit the development of antibiotic resistance both in human populations and the environment and new antibiotic drug development.
The course is a free standing bachelor’s level course (3 credits). For more information visit:
The Problem of Antibiotic Resistance (BIO001)
The course is distributed over 11 lectures. Each lecture is divided in specific topics. See below for descriptions and links to each lecture/topic.
Disciplines and teachers in this course:
- Microbiology & Genetics - Anne Farewell
- Environmental dimension - Joakim Larsson
- Chemistry - Morten Grötli
- Ethics - Christian Munthe
- Clinical microbiology - Gunnar Jacobsson
- Economics - Fredrik Carlsson
- Political science - Björn Rönnerstrand
1. The Problem of Antibiotic Resistance
How serious is this issue? How widespread is the problem? How did we get here? Case studies of individual instances. Future if nothing were done. What are bacteria? Where are they found? How do they grow?
Videos:
Full lecture (24:33 min) including introduction
Part 1: What is antibiotic resistance (12:14 min)
Part 2: What are bacteria (6:34 min)
2. Introduction to the Bacteria and Cell Biology
What is their basic cell structure? What kind of genetic material do they have? Brief review of DNA, genes and mutations. What are antibiotics?
Videos:
Part 1: Bacterial membrane and cell wall (8:45 min)
Part 2: Bacterial cell structure continued (7:10 min)
Part 3: Bacterial growth (7:08)
Part 4: What are antibiotics - Penicillin (9:47)
3. Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance
What are antibiotics? How do they affect bacterial cells? Where are they found? What is resistance? What is the molecular basis of resistance?
Videos:
Part 1: Antibiotic targets: DNA and RNA synthesis (10:18 min)
Part 2: Antibiotic targets: Ribosomes and more (11:12 min)
4. The Spread of Antibiotic Resistance
How does resistance spread between bacteria? Conjugation, Transformation and Transduction. What is the potential role of the microbiome as a reservoir?
Videos:
Part 1: Antibiotic resistance: ESBL (6:55 min)
Part 2: ABR mechanisms: target modification and efflux (5:58 min)
Part 3: Biofilms (4:20 min)
Part 4: Antibiotic resistance can arise by mutation (4:00 min)
Part 5: Horizontal gene transfer of antibiotic resistance (8:15)
Part 6: Phage: transduction and phage therapy (9:30)
5 & 6. Environmental Pollution and Non-Human use of Antibiotics
How does environmental antibiotic pollution affect antibiotic resistance in the environment? What role does this have in human disease? Pollution from manufacturers, pollution from animal use. What can be done to decrease this problem?
Videos:
Part 1: One health perspective (2:55 min)
Part 2: Use of antibiotics in animals (15:31 min)
Part 3: Transmission from animals to humans (6:45 min)
Full lecture #6 (58:12 min)
Part 1: Transmission of ABR in the environment (10:52 min)
Part 2: Evolution of ABR in the environment (8:51)
Part 3: Selection of ABR in the environment (20:08)
Part 3: ABR in Antibiotic manufacturing (18:34)
7. Development of New Antibiotics
How can we find novel antibiotics? Screening of natural products vs. synthetic chemistry to find lead compounds. How does one use chemical approaches to modify a lead compound?
Videos:
Part 1: What is medicinal chemistry? (6:35 min)
Part 2: Drug Development Introduction (6:22 min)
Part 3: Antibiotics Structure-Activity: Quinolones (8:09 min)
Part 4: Beta-Lactam Structure Activity (10:50 min)
Part 5: How to discover new antibiotics (12:05 min)
8. Ethics of Antibiotic Use
Antibiotics are a shared, limited resource. How do our personal ethics affect the choices we make? How do our decisions affect society as a whole?
Videos:
Part 1: Ethical questions in ABR (8:17 min)
Part 2: Value judgments in ABR (15:11 min)
Part 3: Conflicting institutional ethics (8:49 min)
Part 4: Collective Action as an Ethical Challenge (10:03 min)
Part 3: Managing pragmatic issues (6:49 min)
9. Antibiotic Resistance in a Clinical Setting
How is antibiotic resistance dealt with from a clinical perspective? What information is given or should be given to doctors and patients? How can rapid diagnostics help clinicians?
Videos:
Part 1: Clinical consequences of ABR (24:13 min)
Part 2: Societal and individual risk (11:09 min)
Part 3: Empiric Therapy of Infection (8:57 min)
10. The Economics of Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance
Antibiotic resistance as a social dilemma problem, social costs of antibiotic resistance and policies for reducing antibiotic resistance.
Videos:
Part 1: Economics of ABR (14:37 min)
Part 2: Factors to consider in designing policies (14:54 min)
Part 3: Examples of economic incentives in ABR (15:12 min)
Part 3: Affecting Individual behaviour (6:46 min)
11. The Politics of Antibiotic Use
How can political systems influence this issue? Can a political approach diminish, for example, environmental pollution by antibiotic manufacturers? Can a political approach help spare last resort antibiotics?
Videos:
Part 1: ABR as a Collective Action problem (5:27 min)
Part 2: Regulated collective action (13:14 min)
Part 3: Voluntary collective action (19:45 min)
12. Research in Antibiotic Resistance at GU (CARe) and New Approaches
A summary of the activities being conducted to combat the problem within 6 themes
Videos:
Part 1: New Approaches to Therapeutics for ABR (10:10 min)
Part 2: New Approaches to Diagnostics (7:26 min)
Part 3: New Approaches to ABR (7:18 min)