Today Fraunhofer and grit42 announced that their collaboration across multiple AntiMicrobial Resistance (AMR) projects – funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) – has made significant progress, setting up a FAIR data framework that can utilise knowledge graphs and prepares AMR data for potential machine learning.
Beyond defining and successfully creating a coherent and annotated pan-European standard for AMR data from both pre-clinical and clinical projects, Fraunhofer and grit42 has also demonstrated the ability to transform the AMR data from a vast number of sources to knowledge graphs in combination with other external data. That can lead to potential new or combination therapies to tackle the challenge of AMR in human health.
Philip Gribbon, Head of Discovery Research at Fraunhofer ITMP, states: “It’s a pleasure to announce the significant progress we’ve made together. Starting with defining templates for loading and FAIRification of pre-clinical and clinical data – all the way to now showcasing support for knowledge graphs and ultimately machine learning is a tremendous achievement. We believe that we now have practical tool to support machine based strategies to help find the next generation of treatments that can help us in the important fight against antimicrobial resistance.”
Claus Stie Kallesøe, CEO and co-founder at grit42, adds, “Having worked with Fraunhofer on multiple AMR focused projects since 2014, we’re very proud of how far this collaboration has come. In essence, you can say that we – across multiple IMI-backed AMR projects – have made a framework that sets the pan-European strategy for AMR data. In addition, these standards are setting up combination therapies and potentially artificial intelligence for success, moving ahead.”
The status on AMR
In February of 2022, the Boston Consulting Group released a report on tackling Antimicrobial Resistance, in which they describe the global situation like this: “Another pandemic — one that could result in more deaths and severe illnesses than COVID-19 — looms. But unlike COVID-19, which took the world by surprise, this pandemic is already in plain sight.” – in other words, AMR is already a pressing matter on a global scale.
AntiMicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a global and serious threat to human health. Gram-negative bacteria are widely regarded as the culprit representing one of the gravest dangers. There is a lack of new agents able to address AMR in Gram-negative bacteria, especially compounds with novel modes of action. Finding and developing such compounds represents a huge scientific challenge, one that requires the collaboration of stakeholders bringing many different kinds of expertise.
About grit42
Copenhagen-based grit42 focuses on integrating digital laboratory infrastructure with user-friendly day-to-day lab workflows, as well as handling compound and sample logistics, in order to ensure structured quality data across all the different pre-clinical drug discovery phases.
To see examples of how grit42 is supporting the digital fight against AMR, please visit:
https://grit42.com/amr/