Oxford given millions to fight antibiotic resistance Jailed Navalny tells supporters to take protests to the streets
Oxford University has been given £100 million (NZ$190 million) to create an institute that will combat the ‘‘silent pandemic’’ of antibiotic resistance.
The donation from Ineos, the chemicals giant, is one of the largest to a British university and will support scientists over the next five years.
‘‘We have run out of time. This is a national emergency and international crisis,’’ said Tim Walsh, a professor of medical microbiology and one of the lead researchers at the new institute. ‘‘I give the analogy that Covid is like the short, sharp earthquake, whereas antimicrobial resistance is the massive tsunami in the background.’’
Antibiotic resistance is a huge global problem that is getting worse. As many as 1.5 million people die annually from strains of bacteria that evade antibiotics.
It has now been 25 years since a new class of antibiotics has been introduced, and scientists are growing increasingly worried that the number and strength of superbugs will only increase.
Without the ability to rely on antibiotics, much of what is today routine medicine, including basic surgery, will become far more dangerous.
Around the world, teams are already working to develop new antibiotics.
Walsh said that unlike other research operations, the team will use the money to focus much of its energy on agricultural use. The majority of antibiotics are used on animals, creating a reservoir where bacteria can evolve to evade drugs and then reinfect humans.
He and his colleagues believe that there is scope to repurpose previously developed drugs that either did not work in humans or that did not pass rigorous safety regulations. By using these instead in animals it would slow the rate at which bacteria evolve to evade our current antibiotics, buying time to develop new ones.
Ineos made the donation when its founder, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, became interested in the problem after learning about it from a surgeon friend.
Professor Louise Richardson, vice-chancellor of the university, said £100 million could go a long way to tackling the problem.
‘‘It’s one of the biggest gifts ever to any British university,’’ she said.
In 2019 Cambridge University received £100 million from the British billionaire David Harding to fund PhD scholarships. In the same year, Oxford received its biggest gift ‘‘since the Renaissance’’ from a US billionaire, to fund research in the humanities.
The latest money will not go towards capital, and will instead start to be used immediately on research. Eventually the new institute will be based in a building already under construction.
– The Times
Alexei Navalny called on his supporters yesterday to ‘‘take to the streets’’ after he was jailed for at least 30 days in an extraordinary trial that took place in a police station rather than a court.
The Russian Opposition leader, who was arrested at Moscow airport on Monday, was imprisoned until February 15 after authorities frantically diverted planes and closed streets to ensure his immediate detention.
Already brought forward by several weeks, the trial began one minute after Navalny’s legal team had received official notice.
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesman, confirmed yesterday that he would serve his sentence in the Moscow jail where tax lawyer Sergei Magintsky died a decade ago after being denied medical help.
Supporters fear that the 44-year-old, who only recently recovered from poisoning with Novichok nerve agent, could spend far longer than a month in Matrosskaya Tishina prison. It was announced yesterday that a separate court is weighing up whether to enforce his 31⁄3-year suspended sentence on fraud offences.
Foreign leaders condemned the arrest while several hundred of Navalny’s supporters protested outside the police station in -20C temperatures, chanting ‘‘freedom’’ and ‘‘Putin step down’’.
Three of Russia’s Baltic neighbours – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – called on the EU to toughen sanctions against Russia imposed in the wake of Navalny’s poisoning if he is not released soon.
The Kremlin, experts said, was likely to calibrate whether or not to impose further prison time on Navalny according to the ferocity of the local and global backlash.
Long the chief opponent of Russian president Vladimir Putin, Navalny called on his supporters to rally against ‘‘that pack of thieves who have been robbing Russia for the past 20 years’’ in a video message recorded during a recess in the rushed-through trial.
‘‘Don’t be afraid. Take to the street. Take to the streets not for my sake, but for your own sake and your future,’’ he said.
Navalny’s allies announced plans shortly afterwards for nationwide protests on Saturday.
The politician flew into Russia on Monday for the first time since he was poisoned and airlifted to Germany for treatment in August. On the flight, he watched a cartoon with his wife and joked that he expected ‘‘a warm welcome’’ upon landing.
Navalny has accused Putin of orchestrating an operation to kill him after several independent European laboratories confirmed he was poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent. – Telegraph Group