The role of eco-evolutionary interactions on the spread of antimicrobial resistance in pathogenic microbial communities

The aim of this project is to reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance through horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in infectious polymicrobial communities using principles from ecology and evolution. HGT is of key importance in the evolution of antibiotic resistance, as it is one of the most effective ways of transferring information between bacteria, sometimes even between different species.
Until now, HGT has been primarily studied in single bacterial populations. The effects of genetic and ecological interactions on HGT in communities of different bacterial species has not received much attention yet. The key challenge of this project is to identify eco-evolutionary principles that govern the rate of HGT, and the spread of antimicrobial resistance in communities consisting of different pathogenic bacterial species. The obtained knowledge can be used to minimize the spread of resistance via HGT, which will be a leap forward for the microbiological research field, and a first step for future patients suffering from infectious diseases.