Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham’s three-day Virtual Global Symposium on Antimicrobial Resistance Inaugurated

India now the epicenter of the ‘slow pandemic’ of AMR that is posing a clear and present danger to humanity, say experts

• Titled “Man v/s Microbes –The Race of the Century,” the three-day event (Feb 24-26, 2021) is hosting 18 AMR experts from around the world

• The India Innovation Pavilion, to be held on February 25, 2021, would highlight the AMR innovation work being done by some of the best companies in India

by Suman Gupta

February,2021: A three-day online global symposium on the burgeoning Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) crisis (February 24, 2021) by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham’s School of Biotechnology began today. The event titled “Man v/s Microbes –The Race of the Century,” is being held in partnership with the “Collaborative to Halt Antibiotic-Resistant Microbes” (CHARM) at the University of California San Diego, the Bengaluru-based Bugworks Research, and Government of India’s Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP).

The symposium is featuring 18 noted AMR experts from the US, UK, Europe, Australia, Canada, Singapore and India. They are addressing key issues such as global needs and priorities to combat AMR and promoting investment for research and innovation.

Said Dr. Bipin Nair, Amrita School of Biotechnology, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham: “WHO has projected Antimicrobial Resistance [AMR] as the greatest challenge facing global public health.  AMR has become a global problem of immense complexity due to excessive antimicrobial usage, sluggish development of new antibiotics and poor antimicrobial stewardship. As a result, the emergence of a post antimicrobial world, where a simple infection could lead to death, is a distinct possibility. This symposium would strengthen India’s leadership in combating this global pandemic in the making. It would lead to increased awareness about AMR and encourage best practices among the masses, health workers and policy makers to contain further emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections.”

Dr. Anand Anandkumar, CEO, Bugworks Research, Bangalore said, “AMR, the slow pandemic, is one of the biggest health threats that humanity is faced with. India is at the very epicentre of this health crisis, and will be a very important region from which global solutions to AMR can come from. BIOCREST 2021 is an outstandingly timely event, which will showcase challenges, opportunities and strategies to combatting AMR, what with the outstanding collection of global expert-speakers and panellists who will grace this event”.

Dr. Victor Nizet, the faculty lead of CHARM at UC San Diego and a co-organizer of the symposium, added “AMR represents a complex global pandemic for which innovative and effective remedies will require collective action through international cooperation. Our team at UC San Diego has been fortunate to collaborate scientifically and educationally with our colleagues at Amrita School of Biotechnology on AMR solutions, and we believe this symposium can help expand our worldwide network of like-minded scientists, physicians and agencies to address this pressing problem”.

A key highlight of the Symposium would be a couple of panel discussions. The India Innovation Pavilion, to be held on February 25, 2021 at 3 pm would highlight the AMR innovation work being done by the best companies in India in the fields of drug discovery, diagnostics, and devices. Another panel discussion titled “Combatting AMR – The Road Ahead” would be held on February 26, 2021, at 4 pm. Experts from India and abroad will look at all the elements that would need to come together for India to get a good handle over the AMR situation, the key initiatives that the country needs to drive in an accelerated mode.

Experts from Dept. of Biotechnology (Govt. of India), AIIMS Bhopal, IIT – Bombay, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Jawaharlal Nehru University, DBT-BIRAC and WHO- AMR India Country Office will speak at the symposium, along with top AMR researchers from prestigious universities in Switzerland, USA, Australia, Canada and Singapore.

Across three days, sessions would be held on themes like Future of Antibiotics and Resistance; Alternatives to antibiotics for multidrug resistant infections; Abrupt Emergence of the Superbug Super-clones; Antimicrobial Resistance: Indian Scenario; and Economics of Antibiotic Stewardship or State AMR Containment Policy in India (Private Public Partnership).

About Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham:Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham is a multi-campus, multidisciplinary Institution of Eminence accredited by NAAC and ranked the 4th Best Overall University in India in the 2020 National Institution RankingFramework (NIRF). The university is currently spread across six campuses in three states of India—Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka—with the institution’s headquarters at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Amrita partners with academic, industry, and governmental institutions across the world to accomplish human-centered, translational, and groundbreaking research. To date, Amrita has more than 500 collaborations from more than 200 signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs). Some of Amrita’s partners include Harvard University, Columbia University, King’s College London, KTH – Royal Institute of Technology, VU Amsterdam, the British Geological Society, University of Oxford, Italian National Research Council, Deakin University and the University of Tokyo. Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma) is the founder and Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. A world-renowned humanitarian leader, Amma is the guiding light of Amrita. Amma’s words, thoughts, and vision for education and research have shaped the university’s mission and vision.