Skip main navigation

What are bacteria?

Bacteria are microscopic, single-celled organisms that exist in their millions, in every environment, both inside and outside other organisms. The vast majority of the bacteria in the body are rendered …

Learning together

Your learning You will learn by watching videos, reading articles and publications, checking your understanding in the quizzes and test, and through discussion with other learners. Comments Almost every step …

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to all those who are and were involved in the Bacterial genomes: Disease Outbreaks and Antimicrobial Resistance Course’s development, refinements, and presentations. Lead Educators and Developers Dr. Adam …

Next Steps

Free Digital Certificate of Achievement This is a Sponsored course, which means that learners can obtain a free Certificate once they become eligible. *To be eligible, you must mark at …

Summary of Week 3

This week you learned about AMR, one of the major issues facing humanity. You learned about the issues that have led to the current AMR crisis, such as overuse of …

What can genomics tell us about AMR?

Dr Estee Torok is conducting pioneering research into using whole-genome sequencing in real-time so that AMR can be tracked and the results used to inform treatment. Watch the interview to …

Resistance through horizontal gene transfer

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is the process by which bacteria acquire and/or exchange genetic material. This is the most common way for bacteria to become resistant to antibiotic, by acquiring …

Resistance through chromosomal mutation

As we learned in the previous step, some bacteria are naturally resistant to certain antibiotics. In cases where bacteria are not intrinsically resistant, they can develop resistance to antibiotics by …

Mechanisms of resistance

Bacteria can resist antibiotics in multiple ways. Understanding mechanisms of resistance is key to making the best use of existing antibiotics, and designing the next generation of drugs so that …

Lack of diagnostic tests

Antibiotics aren’t effective against viral infections. Similarly, an antibiotic won’t be effective against a bacterium that is already resistant to it. Rapid diagnostic tests that tell us this basic information …

Usage of antibiotics

There is no doubt that antibiotics have transformed healthcare. They are an essential weapon in our ability to tackle infectious diseases, but are also used routinely across a wide range …

The dwindling antibiotic pipeline

The increase of AMR has accelerated the need for new antibiotics that bacteria are not yet resistant to. However, the process of discovering, developing and testing a new antibiotic before …

AMR terminology

There is a lot of jargon surrounding antimicrobial resistance (AMR) so here we will cover the most commonly used terms and how we will be using them in the course. …