ABSTRACT
Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Antimicrobials and Resistance:
Opportunities and Challenges organized by Drs. Gautam Dantas and Jennifer A. Leeds. The conference will
be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico from October 29-November 1, 2017. Antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) infections
claim hundreds of thousands of lives around the globe annually. This problem is exacerbated by a steady
increase in global antimicrobial use and abuse in the clinic and agriculture, and a dearth of novel antimicrobials
making it to market. If these scenarios continue unchecked, AMR will cumulatively cost the global economy at
least 100 trillion dollars by 2050. This conference will focus on the latest work understanding and combatting
AMR, including clinical perspectives on AMR diagnostics and management, translational academic
perspectives on design of drug regimens and combinations that suppress AMR, pharma perspectives on
recent successes and failures in novel antimicrobial development and clinical trials, and basic science
perspectives on the ecology and transmission of evolving AMR determinants. While these stakeholders are
similarly motivated to identify and develop therapies to treat the exceptional, unmet medical need of worsening
AMR, their spheres rarely overlap at scientific conferences, leading to scientific communication barriers
between subject matter experts. This meeting will address this challenge by engaging diverse global
perspectives on these topics, including speakers and attendees from research academia, industrial drug
development, and health care practice and policy.