Meet the course team

To enhance your learning, we have gathered a group of experts on antibiotic resistance.

The overall lead for this course is Thomas Tängdén, who you already met in the welcome video. He is an infectious disease physician and researcher. Thomas will return later in the course and give a lecture (Part 2) about bacterial evolution and the importance of the normal flora.

Saga Alvring is a public health scientist (BSc, MPH) who has developed large parts of the course content.

Karin Malmros is an infection biologist and the scientific officer at ReAct. Karin has assisted in developing content (e.g., factsheet, quizzes, assignments) of this course. In part 4, she will give a lecture about what you can do as an individual to prevent infection and spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Otto Cars is senior professor of infectious diseases and the founder and senior advisor of ReAct. He has spent more than 20 years to alert the outside world about the risks of antibiotic resistance and is frequently employed as an expert and advisor by WHO, other institutions and high-level politicians. Otto was also a member of the UN-appointed Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance. Otto’s first lecture (Part 1) will be about the current situation and his second lecture (Part 4) about what he thinks are the key tools to tackle antibiotic resistance.

Maria Pränting is a microbiologist and the scientific coordinator of ReAct. She holds a PhD in medical microbiology and her research has mainly focused on examining development of bacterial resistance to antimicrobial peptides. Maria will give a lecture (Part 2) about emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. She also helped develop some content and factsheets of this course.

Hanna Montelin is an infectious disease physician and PhD candidate working at Uppsala University Hospital. In Part 2 of the course, Hanna will talk about the challenges in clinical practice she faces in her daily work at the hospital.

Jenny Kostov Kanebjörk is a nurse working at the infectious disease clinic at Uppsala University Hospital and Strama Region Uppsala. In part 2 of the course, Jenny will give a lecture about infection prevention and control in the hospital setting.

Diarmaid Hughes is a professor of medical molecular bacteriology and is interested in bacterial genetics and evolution, including the evolution of resistance to antibiotics. He is engaged in the ENABLE project, which is a public-private collaboration aiming to advance the discovery and development of new Gram-negative antibiotics. Diarmaid will give a lecture (Part 3) about the challenges in discovering new antibiotics and the need for innovation in the field.

Francesco Ciabuschi is a professor of international business and is interested in developing new business models addressing antibiotic resistance. He was a leading partner in the DRIVE-AB project, which aimed to design new business models that would provide industry with an incentive to develop new antibiotics while ensuring that they are used wisely. Francesco will give a lecture (Part 3) about the need for new business models addressing antibiotic resistance.

Stefan Swartling Peterson is a professor of global health and former chief of health at UNICEF. He has spent more than 20 years working on child survival, perinatal quality of care and capacity development in East Africa. Stefan will give a lecture (Part 3) about how antibiotics should be distributed to balance access against the risk of excessive use in low- and middle-income countries.

At the end of the course, some lecturers will share their views in a concluding panel discussion (Part 4). The panel will be moderated by Jessica Lönn-Stensrud, who works as a senior academic librarian at the University of Oslo. She holds a PhD in microbiology and her research research interest lies in antibiotic resistance, biofilms and infections.

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