Infections and especially those caused by antibiotic-resistant microorganisms have recently gained widespread attention. Reliably detecting causative agents and preferably simultaneously assessing their antibiotic resistance are a central theme for the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) industry. Technology suited for doing exactly this has historically been culture based but spectacular new technologies have emerged that revolutionized IVD. Several of the innovative approaches are now revealing a future perspective that will result in significantly faster and more reliable detection of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This will strongly support the universal battle against AMR.
Alex van Belkum is an Dutch microbiologist who published over 600 PubMed cited papers that were cited over 50.000 times resulting in an H-factor over 100. Alex van Belkum combines an academic (University of Leiden, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam) with an industrial (bioMerieux, France) career and has always been interested in mostly translational research where the main topic has been the detection and characterization of infectious agents harboring ribosomes. Alex van Belkum is the current CSO for BaseClear (Leiden, The Netherlands), a company focusing on microbial genomics.
Moderation: Professoren Dr. Barbara Bröker