A way out of the antibiotics crisis

Every year, more people die as a result of an infection with antibiotic-resistant germs. According to a recent study,External link this number could rise to more than 39 million worldwide by 2050. There is no easing of the global antibiotics crisis in sight. What is particularly alarming is that the problem is largely homemade.

"The fact that resistance genes to antibiotics are spreading so strongly and quickly is due to their excessive and, above all, untargeted use," says Prof. Dr Kai Papenfort from the University of Jena. This is because broad-spectrum antibiotics generally not only eliminate the pathogens causing the disease, but often damage the patient's entire microbiome. "In this way, both pathogens and the patient's own microflora develop resistance and more and more antibiotics lose their effectiveness," continues the microbiologist.

Five million euros in funding from the Carl Zeiss Foundation

Together with Prof. Dr Miriam Agler-Rosenbaum, head of the research group for Synthetic Biotechnology at the University of Jena and the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology – Hans Knöll Institute (HKI), Papenfort is leading a research project that aims to counter the antibiotics crisis with a completely new conceptual approach. The "SynThera" project (Synthetic therapeutic microbes for tailored antimicrobial therapies) will be supported by the Carl Zeiss Foundation with around 5 million euros over the next five years. In its thematic focus "Life Science Technologies", the foundation promotes research at the interface of engineering and life sciences.

Specifically effective and locally limited

The team, which includes Agler-Rosenbaum and Papenfort as well as eight other research groups from the University of Jena and the HKI, relies on the support of other non-pathogenic microbes to combat pathogens. "We want to design microorganisms in such a way that they recognise pathogens and render them harmless in a highly specific and locally limited way," explains Miriam Rosenbaum. On the one hand, this means that significantly fewer side effects can be expected than with the use of existing antibiotics. It also minimizes the risk of resistance developing. Such an approach also opens up the possibility of personalized medicine.

With this approach, the Jena researchers not only want to develop therapeutics against acute infections, such as EHEC bacteria or clostridia. The customized drugs are also to be used as prophylaxis, for example in chemotherapy and organ transplant patients – wherever antibiotics are currently part of standard treatment.