Abstract
Emerging resistance to all classes of antimicrobials is one of the defining crises of the 21st century. Many advances in modern medicine, such as routine surgeries, are predicated on sustaining patients with antimicrobials during a period when their immune systems alone cannot clear infection. The development of new antimicrobials has not kept pace with the antimicrobial resistance (AR) threat. AR bacteria have been documented in various environments, such as drinking and surface water, food, sewage, and soil, yet surveillance and sampling has largely been from infected patients. The prevalence and diversity of AR bacteria in the environment, and the risks they pose to humans are not well understood. There is consensus that environmental surveillance is an important first step in forecasting and targeting efforts to prevent spread and transmission of AR microbes. However, efforts to date have been limited. The Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance in the Environment (PARE) is a classroom-based project that engages students around the globe in systematic environmental AR surveillance with the goal of identifying areas where prevalence is high. The format of PARE, designed as short classroom research modules, lowers common barriers for institutional participation in course-based research. PARE brings real-world microbiology into the classroom by educating students about the pressing public health issue of AR, while empowering them to be partners in the solution. In turn, the PARE project provides impactful data to inform our understanding of the spread of AR in the environment through global real-time surveillance.
Highlights
In October, 2020, the new United States National Action Plan for Combating AntibioticResistant Bacteria 2020–2025 was published (Federal Task Force on Combating AntibioticResistant Bacteria, 2020)
In contrast to inquiry-based instruction, in which the results are generally of limited interest to the broader scientific community, Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide an opportunity for students to collect and analyze data that have potential to lead to new scientific findings of interest beyond the classroom (Lopatto, 2003; Hatfull et al, 2006; Buck et al, 2008; Kloser et al, 2011; Fukami, 2013; Alaimo et al, 2014; Auchincloss et al, 2014; Spell et al, 2014; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2015; Weaver et al, 2020) and are an attempt to scale up the traditional apprentice-style research experiences for undergraduates (Wei and Woodin, 2011; Olson and Riordan, 2012; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2015)
The Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance in the Environment (PARE) project is a powerful platform for student learning and scientific discovery that has potential to address the scientific challenges associated with environmental surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AR) and to educate tomorrow’s decision makers about the public health threat of AR and the biological concept of natural selection
Summary
In October, 2020, the new United States National Action Plan for Combating AntibioticResistant Bacteria 2020–2025 was published (Federal Task Force on Combating AntibioticResistant Bacteria, 2020). In contrast to inquiry-based instruction, in which the results are generally of limited interest to the broader scientific community, CUREs provide an opportunity for students (typically undergraduates) to collect and analyze data that have potential to lead to new scientific findings of interest beyond the classroom (Lopatto, 2003; Hatfull et al, 2006; Buck et al, 2008; Kloser et al, 2011; Fukami, 2013; Alaimo et al, 2014; Auchincloss et al, 2014; Spell et al, 2014; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2015; Weaver et al, 2020) and are an attempt to scale up the traditional apprentice-style research experiences for undergraduates (Wei and Woodin, 2011; Olson and Riordan, 2012; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2015).
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