CO-ADD Sparks Up the Hunt for New Antibiotics

11/19/21 • 36 min

It’s World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021 and we are shining a light on Australia’s expertise and innovations to fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and superbugs.

Joining our podcast host Caroline Duell is MTPConnect’s Director of Stakeholder Engagement for Queensland Andrew Bowskill, who is the co-chair of AAMRNet, Australia’s first industry led, multi-stakeholder Antimicrobial Resistance Network, established and operated by MTPConnect.

We hear from Dr Mark Blaskovich, Associate Professor, The University of Queensland; Director, Centre for Superbug Solutions at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) and co-founder of the Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery (CO-ADD) at The University of Queensland.

And Dr Alysha Elliott, IMB Research Officer and part of the Cooper Group involved in translation of research for antibacterial drug discovery who leads the CO-ADD microbial team in screening compounds from all over the world to search for the next new antibiotic.

Find out more about CO-ADD's global screening initiative, the challenges of antimicrobial drug discovery, why AMR is a global health threat and how support from CARB-X and other collaborative efforts like the SPARK data sharing initiative is helping to further critical research into finding new antimicrobials, fighting the threat of AMR and the rise of superbugs. This is the first of four episodes specially programmed to coincide with WAAW!

It’s World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021 and we are shining a light on Australia’s expertise and innovations to fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and superbugs.

Previous Episode

Visionary Telehealth Start-Up Coviu Builds a Platform for Global Growth

We catch up with medtech start-up Coviu, the company behind a game-changing video telehealth software that is now being used by 65,000+ health professionals in Australia.

Coviu recently took out two awards at the Australian Technologies Competition (ATC), an accelerator program that MTPConnect supports in partnership with the Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources.

Coviu Global’s Director & CEO Dr Silvia Pfeiffer, a start-up veteran, shares the company's journey starting with the spin out from Data61/CSIRO, scaling up during the COVID-19 pandemic to providing 5.5 million telehealth consultations to date. Dr Pfeiffer also outlines the benefits of participating in an accelerator program for start- ups who are commercialising and growing rapidly. An episode not to be missed!

Next Episode

LBT Innovations’ Technology Aims to Speed Up Detection of Antimicrobial Resistance

It’s World Antimicrobial Awareness Week and we are shining a light on Australia’s expertise and innovations to fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and superbugs.

In this episode, we catch up with LBT Innovations, a groundbreaking South Australian company designing advanced medical technologies that automate culture plate reading and improve medical diagnostic workflows.

Their Chief Executive Officer, Brent Barnes, provides an update on the world-first APAS Independence, their automated plate reading technology now making headway into US and European markets, and a project funded by MTPConnect’s Biomedical Translation Bridge (BTB) program that is developing the use of artificial intelligence to help speed up the detection of antimicrobial resistance, improve antibiotic stewardship and ultimately help patients get the treatment they need.

Joining host Caroline Duell is Andrew Milligan from the Medical Device Partnering Program based in South Australia. MDPP is one of the Venture Partners for the BTB program and Andrew supports BTB awardees, like LBT Innovations with mentoring and project support.