A clinician at the University of Birmingham is set to explore the use of AI to develop a treatment for drug-resistant eye infections.
The university announced on 12 September that Dr Darren Shu Jeng Ting, has received a Clinician Scientist Fellowship worth £1.8 million from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to develop novel treatments for infectious keratitis (IK).
The research will be conducted over a period of five years to develop new antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that can kill or inhibit harmful microorganisms and effectively treat IK.
A necessary intervention
Infectious keratitis (IK) is a leading cause of corneal blindness. It is responsible for around 5 million cases of blindness globally, and an estimated 2 million cases of monocular blindness each year.
Up to now, there are limited treatment options coupled with the declining effectiveness of antibiotics, hence patients endure severe pain, prolonged hospital stays, and reduced quality of life as no new classes of antibiotics have been developed since the 1980s.
So far, resistant infections have caused more than 1 million deaths annually worldwide, hence the need for an urgent solution.
Dr Ting’s project will develop new AMPs that are less likely to induce resistance, by combining artificial intelligence (AI) and nanotechnology to accelerate discovery and clinical translation.
Commenting, the award recipient said:
“I feel incredibly privileged to be awarded this prestigious 5-year MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship. This generous support provides a truly exciting opportunity to advance my research on antimicrobial peptides to treat corneal infection and tackle antimicrobial resistance—two urgent global health challenges.”
He will lead a team of experts from the University of Birmingham and other reputable institutions with expertise in translational ophthalmology, material science, microbial genomics and AI in drug discovery.
The awardee has been carrying out research in the line of antimicrobial peptides to treat corneal infection and tackle antimicrobial resistance with previous funding from partners including MRC, RCOphth, Fight for Sight, and Birmingham Health Partners.
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