We know that frequent use of antibiotics can cause resistance in bacteria, and we know how they pass on resistance genes to each other. But simply studying disease-causing bacteria and genes is too limited, says microbiologist Marjon de Vos. Her research takes a broader view of the bacterial ecosystem as a whole. It turns out that bacteria that were considered harmless bystanders play an important role in the development of resistance.

Read the Science in Focus article on our research below, written by René Fransen.

https://www.rug.nl/fse/news/science-in-focus/antibiotics/breaking-the-resistance-why-bacteria-are-stronger-together

Interested in other research on antimicrobial resistance at our university, look here https://www.rug.nl/fse/news/science-in-focus/

Much looking forward to our second workshop on Microbial Eco-Evolutionary Medicine on 15-17 April 2025 at the Lorentz Center in Leiden. Organized in collaboration with Sandra Breum-Andersen, Jesse Shapiro, Michael Baym and Constance Schultsz.

https://www.lorentzcenter.nl/new-challenges-in-microbial-eco-evolutionary-medicine.html

#FEMSmicroBlog: Polymicrobial community members promoting the transfer of plasmids to uropathogenic Escherichia coli

It summarizes our recent work on the influence of microbial community members on antibiotic resistance encoding plasmid transfer in uropathogenic E.coli.

As part of a collaborative consortium on Health Technology, and particularly sepsis, we will be recruiting a new PhD student, together with UMCG collaborators, in the new year.

The PhD student preferably has affinity with microbiology as well as immunology. More information will follow later.

Together with Monika Trzpis-Bremer, Barbara van Munster, Thomas Hackl we have received an FSE Interdisciplinary Seed Grant to study microbial associations and delirium.

The ENLIGHT Thematic Network Grant on Healthy Aging REACT was recently granted. We are lucky to play a small part in this. Other GELIFES researchers involved are Hannah Dugdale, Niki Gervais, Robbert Havekes, Jan Komdeur, Peter Meerlo, Sanne Moorman, and Yagmur Erten. This project is coordinated by Kasia Whysall, University of Galway.

And… more news coming soon.

PhD student Freya Darling Eriksen won the best pitch award at the yearly meeting of the Netherlands Centre for One Health (NCOH).

BSc student Corné van der Zeeuw won the second prize for his poster presentation about his research project in our lab at Hanze Hogeschool. Lucky for us he will be coming back this fall!

Well done!

Marjon will contribute to the event organized by the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health on 22 January 2024.

The Fundamental Science for Health and Environment FSE Hub related to the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health was recently approved by the faculty board.

The aim of the hub is to connect research and education within FSE and the wider university in the field of health and the living environment.

Scheduled relevant events:

7 September 2023 – Networking event on antimicrobial resistance

More information and registration:

https://www.rug.nl/aletta/calendar/amr-the-silent-pandemic-a-groninger-network-meeting

2 November 2023 – Planetary Health Dive – for researchers and societal stakeholders involved in topics related to Planetary Health, such as; Education, Biodiversity, Eco anxiety, Agriculture, Marine life, Water, One Health – including (non) infectious diseases.

More information and registration:

https://www.rug.nl/aletta/calendar/aletta-dive-planetary-health

Save the date 16 October 2023 – Microbiome day

More information will follow

Organisation

Coordination:

Marjon de Vos – Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences

Steering committee:

Marleen Kamperman – Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials

Gert-Jan Euverink – Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen

Frans Bianchi – Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute

Ulrike Dusek – Energy and Sustainability Institute

Talitha Feenstra – Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy

Marieke van Vugt – Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence

Adri Minnaard – Stratingh Institute for Chemistry

Marjon hosted the Disparities in Healthcare interactive session on the Discover the World of Health Technology HTRIC yearly event.

The session was organized by HTRIC Deborah Bozato, speakers were Sieta de Vries (UMCG), Inge Holtman (UMCG) and Wolter Paans (Hanze).

Marjon and Misshelle joined the Aletta Jacobs Meet-Up on Solidarity in Health organized by AJSPH.

Marjon chaired a session on Solidarity with the future generations, with speakers Nadine Voelkner, Valentina Gallo and Thom Geertsema.

An impression of the event can be viewed here.