AI Insight
Alison Holmes, Director of the Fleming Initiative at Imperial College London, is planning to use the 2028 centenary of penicillin's discovery to sustain global focus on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). She emphasizes that AMR disproportionately affects vulnerable populations and that research funding does not adequately reflect those most impacted. Holmes stresses the need for continued engagement from political leaders, policy makers, and civil society to address this global health challenge.
Why it matters
Antimicrobial resistance threatens the effectiveness of antibiotics worldwide, potentially returning medicine to a pre-antibiotic era where common infections become deadly. Maintaining political and public attention on AMR is critical for sustaining research funding and implementing policies that protect vulnerable populations most affected by drug-resistant infections.
Understand the Science
Alison Holmes is making plans. As the Director of the Fleming Initiative, a global partnership led by Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR), she wants to use the 2028 centenary of Sir Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin “to reflect upon it and honour its legacy. But also as a focus to make sure that, in spite of the geopolitical changes related to funding, that we keep on shining a spotlight on AMR as a major global challenge that disproportionately effects the vulnerable and leaves people behind, and that research funding remains largely unrepresentative of who it most affects.” Holmes, who is also Professor of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London and the David Price Evans Chair in Infectious Diseases and Global Health at the University of Liverpool in the UK, explains, “We need to maintain a sustained focus, ensuring the attention of policy and political leaders, and also embedding awareness in civil society and the young, so they can drive it.
Source: [Perspectives] Alison Holmes: sustaining global attention on AMR