With the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) worldwide, and few novel antimicrobials being developed, it is becoming more and more important to quickly, accurately and inexpensively diagnose infections and the precise microbe causing them in order to treat them with the right antimicrobial and prevent the emergence of further resistance. However, the path to developing such diagnostics is full of challenges, so much that the space between developing a working prototype and getting a diagnostic used in patients is often called the “valley of death”.
Ongoing project
The network, B2B2B AMRDx, brings together a diverse group of researchers from universities (bench), hospitals (bedside), for-profits (business), governments and nonprofits (beyond), to tackle some of these challenges. We have expertise in human, animal, and environmental AMR, and come from 20 different countries. The networks goals are as follows.
First, the network creates a comprehensive online AMR Diagnostics Developer Directory (ADDD) to facilitate exchange of ideas in the field. Second, the network extends the JPIAMR Seq4AMR Virtual Benchmarking Platform (VBP) to allow diagnostics developers to systematically evaluate their diagnostics on a collection of high-quality genotypes (genomic data) and phenotypes (antimicrobial resistance data) and identify their strengths and weaknesses. Third, the network identifies new policy directions that can support diagnostics development and adoption by accounting for the public health benefits of using AMR diagnostics. These developments will help AMR diagnostics cross the “valley of death” and help patients.
Expected outcomes:
- An open, curated online AMR diagnostics developer directory (ADDD), building on AMR Insights’ Technology Pages.
- A workshop to develop the standards for genotypes, phenotypes, and metadata, as well as the accompanying bacterial isolates for the VBP, building on previous achievements of the Seq4AMR network (Raphenya et al, 2022)
- A systematic approach for the management, selection and curation of gold standard NGS data, phenotype data, and metadata, as well as the corresponding bacterial isolates for the VBP.
- Communication, dissemination and roadmap open-access publication describing the VBP contents, its format, and the benchmark set selection protocol. Possible journals: Microbial Genomics or similar.
- A workshop to develop a proposal for a regulatory pathway to allow AMR diagnostics developers to benefit from incentives based on the public health benefits of their products.
- An open-access roadmap publication describing the proposed policy.
Network partners
- Leonid Chindelevitch, Imperial College London, United Kingdom (Coordinator)
This network includes 69 partners from 22 countries:Â Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and United States of America.
