The European Research Council (ERC) supports researchers at the University of Oslo with large sums in hope of finding medicines against multiresistant bacteria.
The researchers, with biostatistics professor, Jukka Coranda from Finland at the helm, are behind a method that uses statistics contribute to the development of antibiotics against certain multi-resistant bacteria.
The method caused excitement earlier this month, after which, the European Research Council came to the field. According to Uniforum they have provided nearly 22 million in support funding.
‘It is amazingly great to get such a grant’, said Coranda, professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the Oslo Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology (OCBE).
The method involves a computer sifting through vast amounts of information about bacteria, and analysing all the possible cell changes that may occur in bacterium.
Scientists hope the method will make it possible to tailor medications aimed at one particular bacterium, and in the long term, prevent it reproducing.
‘With the multi-million grant from ERC, it becomes possible to develop this method from ten to one hundred times more data’, said Coranda.
The plan is to create a computer model that shows how medicines can turn against not only multiresistant bacteria such as MRSA, but also tuberculosis bacteria.
‘The discoveries we make will make it possible to develop drugs that kill these bacteria without also killing the beneficial bacteria’, said Coranda.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
