Tackling antimicrobial resistance at the source

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a top global health threat with ramifications beyond a decreasing ability to treat disease. Research led by Professor Chris Thomas at the University of Birmingham (UoB) is targeting AMR at its source. Professor Thomas is the Scientific Director of Plasgene, a spin-out from UoB producing displacement technology against plasmids, exploiting fundamental knowledge of their biology.

Plasmids are autonomous DNA elements in bacteria that often carry genes encoding properties such as virulence, colonisation, and AMR. Some plasmids, called conjugative plasmids, can transfer between bacteria, spreading these abilities even between different species. Plasmids are, therefore, important agents in spreading AMR.

Plasgene’s technology is “good” plasmids, called pCURE, that are engineered to remove “bad” plasmids coding for unwanted properties such as AMR. With BBSRC funding, Professor Thomas has further developed this technology to remove plasmids carrying AMR from gut bacteria. The funding resulted in a patent covering potentiated displacement of AMR plasmids.

Current BBSRC Follow-on funding supports a collaboration with the Animal and Plant Health Agency, the University of Surrey, and Harper Adams University to explore applications in pigs.

If successful, the technology will provide an animal, and potentially human, probiotic intervention to make infections arising from gut bacteria easier to treat.

Fighting against opportunistic pathogens

Professor Miguel Valvano and his research group at Queen’s University Belfast focus on exploring the infection biology of Gram-negative bacteria, including antimicrobial resistance.

In recent BBSRC-funded projects, Professor Valvano’s group has made significant progress in understanding opportunistic pathogens that threaten human health, including Burkholderia and Achromobacter bacterial species. Valvano's group studies how these bacteria survive in host immune cells and promote strong inflammatory responses that damage the airways.

Valvano’s group is internationally leading in Burkholderia research, building on this expertise using BBSRC funding to generate novel vaccines. As there are currently no commercial Burkholderia vaccines, this work paves the way for eliminating the pathogen threat. Some Burkholderia species benefit plant growth and pest control, and these benefits are being explored with a collaborator at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Vaccination opens the possibility of exploring these benefits without the risk to humans. 

Alongside this, the researchers have also been exploring polymyxin resistance in Enterobacter species,  which often cause infection in hospital settings and are multidrug resistant. Last-resort antibiotics, including polymyxin and colistin, are needed to treat infections. However, resistance to polymyxin is evolving.

Valvano’s group identified the production of a bacterial protein in the presence of polymyxin that caused the bacteria to pump the antibiotic from its cells, preventing it from taking effect. This knowledge may help scientists to imagine new ways of killing these bacteria and protecting human health. 

Antibiotic resistance is a global threat, and new strategies are required for its control. Professor Valvano is the Northern Ireland Lead of an All-Island Vaccine Research and Training Network focused on developing novel vaccines against ESKAPE pathogens, which are the most dangerous bacteria for human health.

Understanding insect neurobiology to inform pest control

SOLASTA Bio was a spin-out from the University of Glasgow specialising in safe, sustainable, target-selective, and effective insect control. It was founded in 2020 by lead founders Professor Shireen Davies and Professor Julian Dow, along with Paul Bernasconi and Professor Robert Liskamp, and started trading in 2021 with SOLASTA's first seed round financing.

SOLASTA’s rapid platform technology is based on peptides, small chains of amino acids with important biological functions. SOLASTA’s peptides are developed to selectively target insect pests whilst being safe for insect pollinators. The peptides impact insect behaviour and mortality, thus reducing insect pest populations and attendant crop damage.

BBSRC funding supported product development, including BBSRC-funded fundamental research led by Professor Davies into G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). GPCRs are receptors on the surface of cells that receive ‘messages’ that affect cell and organismal behaviour. This project generated peptides and tools that aided SOLASTA Bio.

Other BBSRC funding supported SOLASTA’s development, including a BBSRC Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship to Professor Davies in 2019, providing the support and training necessary for the commercialisation of the research. BBSRC Impact Acceleration Accounts and AgriTech Catalyst funding helped with market research and accelerated progress.

In 2024, SOLASTA Bio reported on field trials of their peptides in the UK, Europe and the USA against several pests, including aphids, Spotted Wing Drosophila, caterpillars and leafhoppers. These trials showed SOLASTA’s bioinsecticides to be as effective, if not better, at controlling pests compared to commercial standards and had no negative impact on beneficial insects such as pollinators.

SOLASTA Bio is on track to bring products to market in 2027, in at least half the time it traditionally takes to bring synthetic chemical pest control to market, and in the meantime is expanding its operations overseas.

Insect wing scale structures form the basis for new noise absorbers

Researchers at the University of Bristol have been looking to nature to identify creative solutions to noise control.

Marc Holderied, Professor of Sensory Biology at the university, has been fascinated by the acoustic arms race of bats and their moth prey throughout his academic career. Bats use echolocation and the echo of sound waves from their prey to detect a meal. This drives moths to evolve mechanisms of avoiding predation.

Some prey can hear bat calls, changing their flight direction to escape, but not all prey have this ability and have evolved other means.

As part of a BBSRC-funded project, researchers examining scales on the bodies of moths which cannot detect bat calls identified unique structures that absorb ultrasound waves, allowing the moths to become invisible to echolocating bat predators.

The moth scale structure dampens sound ten times more effectively than any man-made sound absorber and has evolved to be thin to cover wings.

Professor Holderied saw the potential to apply this knowledge to the production of thin and effective sound absorbers for noises experienced by humans.

Professor Holderied has received UKRI funding through BBSRC, EPSRC, and £1.3 million from the Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF) Physics of Life programme. The Physics of Life Biological Metamaterials for Enhanced Noise Control Technology project is led by Professor Holderied and Professor Richard Craster at Imperial College London. This SPF grant funded the development of the sound absorber prototype, and further optimisation of the sound absorber is being facilitated by a BBSRC grant in the hope of producing products such as sound-absorbing wallpaper.

This serves as an important example of how curiosity-driven research into our natural world can provide solutions to modern-day problems.