Project Funding Details

PROJECT SUMMARY The prosperity of the modern world is threatened by the relentless emergence of drug-resistant pathogens, pesticide-resistant insects and herbicide-resistant weeds. New investigational cancer drugs increase life expectancy, but inevitably fail when resistance develops. Although the threat of resistance is shared, the fields of infectious disease, cancer and agriculture have largely responded independently. Work on resistance is typically siloed in organism-specific conferences- even within infectious diseases, scientists working on antibacterials, antifungals, antiparasitics, and antivirals rarely communicate. The 2022 Gordon Research Conference on Drug Resistance uniquely bring together scientists studying infectious disease, anticancer agents, insecticides and herbicides to discuss the common threat of resistance. We are requesting partial support for these conferences to defray registration and travel expenses for speakers and select attendees, specifically early career investigators, post docs and graduate students. Our goal is to mount a program of 36 speakers, 8-12 chosen from poster abstracts, with 9 sessions describing recent advances in the field. The opening/closing keynote sessions will be (1) Challenges and Opportunities of Understanding Resistance Mechanisms in Agriculture and (9) Emerging Strategies to Combat Resistance. Other sessions will include (2) Mechanisms of Resistance, (3) Systems and Modeling Strategies to Address Resistance, (4) Combating Resistance with Novel Targets, (5) Durable Drug Design, (6) Eco-Evolutionary Strategies to Address Resistance, (7) Threats and Responses and (8) The Microbiome and Resistance. The speakers and discussion leaders will be recruited from across the fields of infectious disease, cancer and agriculture, drawn from academics, government organizations, foundations and industry (both small and large). We will also aggressively recruit a mix of attendees from many different countries and institutions, with diverse expertise, new perspectives and open minds because the success of this conference relies on abroad representation of disciplines, varying seniority, and wide geographic and cultural perspectives. All attendees will have the option of presenting their work during afternoon poster sessions and junior investigators will also have the opportunity to attend an associated Gordon Research Seminar. The meeting will also include a GRC Power hour to discuss and address the challenges women face in the field.

PROJECT NARRATIVE The emergence of drug/herbicide/pesticide resistance plagues the fields of infectious disease, cancer and agriculture, yet conferences on resistance are typically organism or even mechanism specific. The 2024 Gordon Research Conference on Drug Resistance will bring together scientists and clinicians from all three fields to discuss common challenges and encourage common solutions to this critically important problem.