Evidence review and recommendations for the implementation of genomics for antimicrobial resistance surveillance: reports from an international expert group.

Nearly a century after the beginning of the antibiotic era, which has been associated with unparalleled improvements in human health and reductions in mortality associated with infection, the dwindling pipeline for new antibiotic classes coupled with the inevitable spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a major global challenge. Historically, surveillance of bacteria with AMR typically relied on phenotypic analysis of isolates taken from infected individuals, which provides only a low-resolution view of the epidemiology behind an individual infection or wider outbreak. Recent years have seen increasing adoption of powerful new genomic technologies with the potential to revolutionise AMR surveillance by providing a high-resolution picture of the AMR profile of the bacteria causing infections and providing real-time actionable information for treating and preventing infection. However, many barriers remain to be overcome before genomic technologies can be adopted as a standard part of routine AMR surveillance around the world. Accordingly, the Surveillance and Epidemiology of Drug-resistant Infections Consortium convened an expert working group to assess the benefits and challenges of using genomics for AMR surveillance. In this Series, we detail these discussions and provide recommendations from the working group that can help to realise the massive potential benefits for genomics in surveillance of AMR.
Competing Interests: Declaration of interests KSB reports funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Medical Research Council and partial salary cover from Wellcome Trust and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) over the course of this work. EJ had partial salary cover from Wellcome Trust over the course of this work. RA reports funding unrelated to this study from Novo Nordisk, Roche, Novartis, and UICC, and honoraria (unrelated to this study) from Merck & Co, Novartis, and F Hoffmann-La Roche. BE and INO report receiving funding from the UK Department of Health and Social Care: with a grant managed by the Fleming Fund and work performed under the auspices of the SEQAFRICA project. INO reports funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Joint Programming Initiative in Antimicrobial Resistance, Wellcome Trust, Grand Challenges Africa Award, and UK Medical Research Council, royalties for Genetics: Genes, Genomes and Evolution (Oxford University Press) and Divining Without Seeds and for Antimicrobial Resistance in Developing Countries (Springer), consulting fees from Wellcome Trust, and honoraria for Harvard University seminars and Peter Wildy Lecture Award 2023. LYH reports funding from Pfizer and honoraria from BioMerieux for a lecture in 2022. DMM reports funding from the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. NEW reports funding from Nuclear Threat Initiative, Medical Research Council, Open Philantropy, and Shionogi as well as consulting fees from Nuclear Threat Initiative. DMA reports funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research. NAF reports funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UK Research and Innovation, and National Institute for Health and Care Research. SJP is a member of the scientific advisory board of Next Gen Diagnostics and was supported by Illumina to attend the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease conference. All other authors declare no competing interests.
(Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)