The world is facing an antibiotic apocalypse. Unless action is taken…, we could return to the days when routine operations, simple wounds or straightforward infections could pose real threats to life” Dame Sally Davies, the UK Chief Medical Officer

Our Research

A British report in 2016 remarked that it is “…incredible that doctors must still prescribe antibiotics based only on their immediate assessment of a patient’s symptoms, just like…  in the 1950s” and called for rapid diagnostics by 2020 – just two years away.

It is into this breach ViBrANT will step.  The key is that adhesion plays the first and decisive role in the infection process. Pathogens use adhesins to colonize tissues and cause infections. Within ViBrANT, bottom-up research in adhesion will be carried out, from clinical microbiological research, through functional studies of adhesins, to the elucidation of structures and the design of new diagnostic tests and devices. To use  knowledge to combat infections, we have set up an interdisciplinary environment drawing on engineering, physical and biomedical sciences from academia and industry

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Our Progress

ViBrANT partners have been developing diagnostics based on new understanding of viral infections; have developed new models of how adhesins are expressed on the surface of bacteria; are beginning to understand the structure of the extraordinarily long trimeric autotransporters; have developed novel new antifouling approaches to prevent bacterial adhesion onto biological and non-biological surfaces; and are developing miniaturised, rapid diagnostics that may revolutionise patient care. The future is personalised medicine – where the drug you get is the one that is right for the infection you have, and not a blunderbuss killing every organism in sight.

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Our PhD students are based all over Europe

ViBrANT PhD students will be hosted in the UK, Germany, France, Portugal, Norway, Sweden and Finland in 14 different institutions, ranging from universities to a large international company. These institutions and our partners in the UK and Portugal will take students on secondments. Our highly international research consortium will provide EU-wide structured training through individual career and training plans, international placements and workshops, and conferences. We will train the next generation of leaders in infection research.

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