The Eurolife Summer School 2017 started on July 10 and continued until July 14. This first edition has been devoted to the Antimicrobial drug resistance field. All courses of the Summer School were taught in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona. The Eurolife Summer School provided doctoral and MSc candidates with unique professional and personal development opportunities. By creating an exceptional and truly international, intercultural and interdisciplinary environment, the summer school provides a highly stimulating learning experience that is of long lasting value to the participants’ future careers.

One of the aims of the Eurolife Summer School was to strengthen ties among Eurolife universities. This year’s edition marks the launch of this initiative with the participation of around 35 students from 13 countries, mostly from Europe but also from Ghana, Russia, India, China and Lebanon.

The Eurolife Summer School was organized into 5 topic sections:

1. The problem: Multidrug-resistant (MDR) and Extensively drug-resistance (XRD) bacteria. This part consisted on the description of the major threats: global health implications, epidemiology, molecular mechanisms of resistance, economic burden…
2. The tools. During this session, different tools that allow identify antimicrobial drug resistance were discussed: diagnostic tools, proteomics, next generation sequencing, big data, biosensors…
3. Solutions and implementation. This section was focused on the exchange of information regarding current clinical initiatives, veterinary-related factors, control of hospital emergence and dissemination, stewardship in developing countries, control of nosocomial outbreak…
4. The future. Attendees dealt with strategies for new antibiotics design from natural origin as well as peptides, bacteriophages, fecal microbiota transplantation, bacterial virulence markers, new biotechnological approaches…
5. Academy-Industry partnership to tackle MDR/XDR bacteria. At the last session of the course, students were aware of the role of the industry to tackle resistant bacteria. Furthermore, this part also included short sessions about patenting and entrepreneurship and creative thinking.

At the end of all working sessions, students were invited to present a brief summary of their research project. These presentations were followed by short discussions between students and speakers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News:

• University of Barcelona holds the first Eurolife Summer School, on antimicrobial resistance
• The first edition of the Eurolife Summer School gathered more than 50 students and speakers from more than 15 countries
• Ilse’s experience – Eurolife Summer School 2017