The Lood Lab (Lund University, Sweden)
The Lood Lab focuses on translational research, collaboration with medical professionals, and interaction with industrial partners, working with both basic and applied research.
The lab studies both the beneficial and detrimental aspects of microbes, including benevolent bacteria and antibiotic resistance.
Researchers are investigating the biology behind the spread of mobile genetic elements (e.g. phage) which generate antibiotic-resistant bacteria and difficult to treat infections.
In 2019/2020, the Eurofins Foundation supported research regarding the treatment of mild infections and how this results in increased antibiotic resistance.
The donation allowed the research team to analyse patient material with ddPCR, providing them with quantitative data which will assist in the interpretation of the research question, and could, in the long term, impact health care, both in terms of how patients are treated and how wastewater from hospitals is treated to limit the spread of resistant bacteria. Some of the data generated can already be used to implement changes to improve patient handling in hospitals in Sweden and Tanzania.
In 2021/2022, the Eurofins Foundation renewed its support to the Lood Lab for research on “Resistant Water”.
The research team has recently identified that water from distinct environments, particularly close to agricultural regions, triggers the spread of antibiotic resistance through the induction of bacteriophages. This project aims to identify and characterise the chemical fingerprints of phage-inducing water to pinpoint the chemicals responsible for spreading resistance. This knowledge will facilitate improvements to water quality, reduce resistance spread, and thus improve general health.
The material was collected in Chile, due to the higher prevalence of resistance and higher usage of antibiotics within agriculture, and analysed in Sweden.
The initial support from the Eurofins Foundation enabled the research team to generate a lot of valuable and promising preliminary data, which in turn enabled them to secure more funding through the Swedish Research Council and hire more individuals working on the long-term project.
One manuscript based on the team’s findings is currently under revision, and one more is being written, with the intention of at least one more being published based on the current data we have.
The Eurofins renews its support to the project in 2022/2023: Material will be collected in Sweden, Bangladesh, South-Africa, and Finland for a wider variety of water sample qualities and resistance gene prevalence.
These projects contribute to the following United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
