Monitoring antibiotic resistance in the environment

About the session

Antibiotic resistance is one of the most urgent threats to global health. The effects of antibiotic resistance are already in catastrophic proportions, with over 1.2 million people dying of resistant infections in 2019. Antibiotic use increases in resistant bacteria, while antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) can also spread among bacteria. This is why resistance hotspots develop where antibiotic use is high and bacteria, especially pathogens, can silently share ARGs in the environment. Monitoring ARGs is a prerequisite in identifying and characterizing sources of resistance and developing effective strategies to mitigate their development and spread. The biotechnology company Resistomap Oy aims to help researchers monitor ARGs and genes associated with pathogens from environmental samples such as wastewater, soils, manure and stool samples. Resistomap's mission is to mitigate the spread of antibiotic resistance by providing robust tools for monitoring.

Speakers

Windi Muziasari
Windi Muziasari
Resistomap
Windi Muziasari has gained years of experience and the know-how to monitor antibiotic resistance from environmental samples such as wastewater, rivers, lakes, soils and manure using a high-throughput gene profiling during her PhD and PostDoc at the University of Helsinki. She wanted other researchers at universities, research institutions and hospitals to gain easy access to this technology and that was why she moved from academia to entrepreneurship by founding Resistomap in 2018. Resistomap is the first company in the world to commercialize antibiotic resistance monitoring service in the environment. Headquartered in Helsinki, Resistomap's mission is to mitigate the spread of antibiotic resistance by providing robust tools for monitoring. Resistomap combines the molecular genetics method and data science to provide a service for antibiotic resistance monitoring comprehensively and fast. Since fully operating in January 2019, Resistomap has served over 140 projects from 30 countries.