New Institute will link world class synthetic chemistry and microbiology to allow breakthrough treatments in medicine and agriculture.
Ineos has donated £100 million to the University of Oxford to establish a new antimicrobials research facility. The donation is said to be one of the largest ever to a UK university.
The Ineos Oxford Institute for Antimicrobial Resistance (IOI) aims to create collaborative and cross disciplinary links involving the university’s department of chemistry and the department of zoology which will be located in the new Life & Mind building, currently under construction.
Estimates indicate that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) could cause over 10 million deaths each year by 2020, and is said to be arguably the greatest economic and healthcare challenge facing the world post-covid.
Bacterial resistance caused by overuse and misuse of antibiotics by humans, but also within agriculture, is said to pose the broadest threat to global populations. However, the field of new drug discovery has attracted insufficient interest and funding, meaning no new antibiotics have been developed since the 1980s.
Along with drug discovery, the IOI intends to partner with other global leaders in the field of AMR to raise awareness and promote responsible use of antimicrobial drugs.
Professor Chris Schofield, Head of Organic Chemistry at Oxford said; ‘The IOI provides us with a wonderful opportunity to link world class synthetic chemistry and microbiology within a single institute with the aim of enabling breakthrough new treatments in medicine and agriculture.’
For more on this visit C&I
Visit Blog