STARS · Scientific Training in Antimicrobial Research Strategies

Researchers who aspire to work in drug discovery need to adapt to constantly changing technology and be able to harness new tools both to ask and to answer pertinent scientific questions. Structural biology was going to rationalize drug design. Next, combinatorial chemistry was to be the industrial panacea, only to be superseded by high-throughput screening of chemical libraries. Technologies such as molecular cell biology, in silico modelling, genetic engineering and NMR, are now also part of an ever-evolving set of tools and approach that researchers need to keep pace. This changing technological landscape is also affecting employment. Technological advances are also making some skills less marketable, while creating demands for other skills that have not traditionally been associated with drug development. Scientists that can communicate across disciplines are increasingly in demand and those with multidisciplinary skills are at a premium. This aim of this initial training network is to improve the career perspectives of early stage researchers by providing multidisciplinary training in a network of industrial and academic partners involved in the discovery, development and commercialization of novel antibacterial and anti-infective drugs.