RISUD Research Seminar: Global Surveillance and Control of Antimicrobial Resistance
Conference / Lecture
-
Date
27 Aug 2025
-
Organiser
Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD)
-
Time
17:00 - 18:00
-
Venue
AG204, Podium Level, Chung Sze Yuen Building (Wing AG), PolyU Map
Speaker
Prof. Frank M. AARESTRUP
Enquiry
RISUD risud@polyu.edu.hk
Summary
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the largest human and animal health threats. Combatting this requires knowledge of where, how and why AMR is transmitting within and between reservoirs. In this research seminar, Prof. AARESTRUP will provide a brief historical background of national and global surveillance of AMR, along with examples of how novel technologies and insight are changing and challenging our possibilities for AMR surveillance and control.
This seminar will include examples of genomic and metagenomic surveillance, as well as discussions on data-sharing challenges and the influence of various anthropogenic and biological factors in sharping the global resistome. Prof. AARESTRUP will also share how the establishment of genomic infrastructures can be utilised for other purposes.
Keynote Speaker
Prof. Frank M. AARESTRUP played a central role in establishing and implementing integrated (One Health) research and surveillance of AMR, providing the research basis for banning and/or controlling antimicrobial usage in food animals in Denmark, where the DANMAP program (www.danmap.org) for surveillance of AMR has been running since 1995. Until 2022, he served as the head of the European Union, World Health Organisation and Food and Agriculture Organisation reference laboratories for AMR in foodborne pathogens. During the past 15 years, his research focus has been on combining novel technologies, including whole genome and community sequencing, as well as bioinformatics for measuring, with global epidemiological data to understand the occurrence of all pathogenic microbes. This has led to several international initiatives, including the establishment of online tools for identifying and characterising all known microbial pathogens, the execution of the largest global metagenomic surveillance of urban sewage to date, as well as the use of machine learning to predict AMR across all countries.
