Table 1.
Topics and Learning Objectives for each of the lectures in the course.
| Topic | Field of study | Students can describe or explain: |
|---|---|---|
| The Problem of Antibiotic Resistance | General | - the scope and seriousness of the problem both nationally and worldwide |
| - the main factors contributing to the problem of ABR | ||
| Introduction to the Bacteria and Cell Biology | Molecular Biology | - what bacteria are, how they grow and divide and the basic bacterial cell structure |
| - what a gene is and how a mutation can change protein structure | ||
| Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance | Molecular Biology/Chemistry | - mechanism of action of several classes of antibiotics including beta-lactams, ciprofloxacin and ribosome-targeting antibiotics |
| - mechanisms of resistance including efflux pumps, target modification and drug inactivation | ||
| Development of Antibiotic resistance | Molecular Biology | - how mutations can occur and lead to ABR |
| - how genes can spread through horizontal gene transfer in bacteria including conjugation, transduction and transformation | ||
| Non-human Use of Antibiotics | Environmental Science | - the One Health Perspective |
| - how misuse of antibiotics in food production can impact the problem of ABR in humans | ||
| Environmental Dimensions of Antibiotic Resistance | Environmental Science | - how environmental pollution of antibiotics from manufacturing, farming and human use impacts the problem of ABR |
| - how environmental pollution impacts transmission and evolution of resistance | ||
| Clinical Consequences of Antibiotic Resistance | Medicine | - considerations for a clinician with regard to ABR |
| - need for faster diagnostics | ||
| - increased costs to patients with increasing ABR | ||
| Ethics of Antibiotic Use | Philosophy | - ethical dilemmas which arise in the response to ABR |
| - how different roles and perspectives can lead to social conflicts in our response to ABR | ||
| - collective action problems | ||
| Medicinal Chemistry and Development of New Antibiotics | Chemistry | - the importance of pharmacokinetics |
| - the concept of structure-activity relationships | ||
| - approaches to new antibiotic drug development | ||
| The Economics of New Antibiotics | Economics | - economic cost of ABR |
| - incentives vs. bans to limit inappropriate antibiotic use | ||
| The Politics of Antibiotic Use and Misuse | Political Science | - how political interventions can aid or hinder in the response to the ABR crisis |
| - regulated vs. voluntary collective action approaches | ||
| Current Research | General | - some of the current approaches to the problem of ABR |