ABSTRACT
Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Novel Approaches Against Emerging
Antimicrobial Resistance, organized by Drs. Man-Wah Tan and Deborah T. Hung. The conference will be held
in Banff, Alberta, Canada from February 13-16, 2022.
It has become clear that infectious diseases are among the greatest threats to human health and global
stability. Chief among these threats is the rise in antibiotic resistance, which endangers our ability to treat
otherwise curable infections. The capacity to discover and develop novel agents to fill the pipeline as existing
antibiotics are lost to increasing resistance has to date been limited. The goal of this Keystone Symposia
conference is to present cutting-edge approaches to antibiotic discovery, including application of expanded
chemical space, systems chemical biology, and artificial intelligence and novel strategies for treating resistant
infection, including CRISPR, vaccines, antibodies, phages and conjugates. The promise, challenges, and
development paths of these new approaches and strategies will be discussed in the context of lessons learned
from prior antibiotic development programs, and new innovations in clinical and regulatory pathways.
Additionally, this conference will be held jointly with “The Human Microbiome: Ecology and Evolution.” This
pairing will help to facilitate exploration of the impact of antibiotics on the microbiome and the microbiome on
antibiotic resistance.