SciLifeLab part of ENABLE-2, an international collaboration to combat antimicrobial resistance
The Swedish Research Council has decided to allocate 25 MSEK to the Uppsala University coordinated EU-initiative for the development of new and effective antimicrobials. The funding will be used to relaunch the existing ENABLE (European Gram-negative Antibacterial Engine) platform during 2021-2022, which will be called ENABLE-2. The SciLifeLab Drug Discovery and Development (DDD) platform will continue to play an important role as a partner in the project.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global threat to public health, and costs both lives and money, through large health expenditures. Despite this, almost no new effective antibiotics has reached the market during the last decades. The ENABLE platform, launched in 2014 to address this urgent problem, has since the start worked to advance the development of potential antibiotics against Gram-negative bacteria, such as Escherichia coli.
On October 31, the project will come to an end and will be relaunched as the new ENABLE-2 project. Pathogens in scope for ENABLE-2 are E. coli, K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa, A.baumannii, S. aureus and E. faecium (ESKAPE pathogens). ENABLE-2 will be an important contribution to support the global development pipeline of new antimicrobials, with the ultimate goal of developing attractive candidates for testing in clinical settings, bringing the possibility of new antibiotics to treat multiresistant bacterial infections one step closer to the patients.
A call is now open for Swedish research groups, both in academia and biotech (supported by Vinnova), to submit their applications and ideas. Visit the ENABLE-2 webpage for more information about the platform and instructions on how to participate. The call will close on October 31.
Applications can also be submitted directly to the DDD-platform at dddprojectproposal@scilifelab.se if your project idea has not yet reached sufficient maturity to meet the criteria required for entering ENABLE-2.
Photo: Fredrik Persson
