Researchers in Imperial's Fleming Initiative have been awarded new funding through a global programme to help transform the discovery of new antibiotics and tackle the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Bringing together expertise in infectious disease, microbiology, chemistry and machine learning, the team will receive £3.1 million in funding for three years through a new programme from The Gates Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, and Wellcome.
The award highlights the continued success of the Fleming Initiative and Imperial working with multiple partners to unlock convergent science funding to tackle major global scientific challenges. This additional funding from the Gr-ADI (Gram-Negative Antibiotic Discovery Innovator) award will expand one of the key Grand Challenges jointly announced in 2025 with GSK, the centennial partner of the Fleming Initiative, and underpins the growing global interest in this collaborative approach to AMR research.
We urgently need new antimicrobials to tackle the growing threat of drug-resistant infections. Klebsiella is a common cause of healthcare infections, and is frequently resistant to antibiotics. Dr Andrew Edwards Department of Infectious Disease
The multidisciplinary project team, convened through the Fleming Initiative – a partnership between Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust – aims to deliver a 'rulebook' to accelerate the discovery of new drug compounds to help tackle tackle Gram-negative pathogen resistance. The initial focus on E.coli will now be expanded to include Klebsiella bacteria with the additional Gr-ADI funds.
Dr Andrew Edwards, from the Department of Infectious Disease and the Centre for Bacterial Resistance Biology at Imperial College London, said: "We're delighted to receive this funding, which will help to further accelerate our research. We urgently need new antimicrobials to tackle the growing threat of drug-resistant infections. Klebsiella is a common cause of healthcare infections, and is frequently resistant to antibiotics. Through collaborations between academia, industry and charity, and co-ordinated by the Fleming Initiative, we're supporting the development of new antibiotics by addressing a major biological hurdle: breaking through bacterial defences to get the drugs inside the cells, where they can kill them."
Klebsiella is a common pathogen which causes a range of healthcare infections including pneumonia, urinary infections (UTIs) and surgical infections, and which is increasingly resistant to antibiotics. Researchers will identify new antibiotic targets and determine how to get drugs into the bacterial cell, which is a major challenge due to the complex bacterial cell envelope.
Klebsiella bacteria cause a range of infections and are increasingly resistant to antibiotics (Image credit: NIAID)
Dr David Payne, from GSK, said: "We are delighted that the vital work we have initiated with Fleming to address Gram-negative pathogen resistance is attracting new interest and additional funding. The Grand Challenges we announced last year are designed to create much needed impetus on the key scientific challenges in AMR, and this new investment shows that we are already doing that with our Fleming partnership."
This project is one of 18 led by research teams across 17 countries. Successful projects have been based on their potential to transform antibiotic discovery for Gram-negative bacteria, one of the leading drivers of AMR-related deaths worldwide.
The project continues a highly successful collaboration between Imperial's Departments of Chemistry, Infectious Disease, Life Sciences, Computer Science and Mathematics. It also benefits from critical infrastructure, including the Imperial Drug Discovery Hub and London BioFoundry for experimental work, and high‑throughput mass spectrometry through the Agilent Measurement Suite (AMS) at Imperial's White City campus.
Professor Ed Tate, from the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London, said: "The aim of this type of work is not to achieve a single breakthrough, but a fundamental change for the field in how we can undertake antibacterial drug discovery. Collaboration is essential to deliver such an ambitious aim, including the unique capabilities of the Imperial Drug Discovery Hub and the Agilent Measurement Suite, without which this work could not be undertaken. We hope that the data and models we generate and share openly will enable research groups around the world in both industry and academia to deliver rapid advances in this critically important area."
The GrADI portfolio totals $60 million and supports an integrated effort across target identification, proteomics, genetic and chemical screens, ultra-high throughput compound accumulation studies, coupled to iterative artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) modelling.
The Imperial project will provide a blueprint, highlighting new targets for drug molecules as well as how to design new and effective drugs. This will include open datasets, predictive ML models for compound accumulation, a tailored compound library and a proteome scale atlas of vulnerabilities in Klebsiella, enabling researchers to design molecules that can reach and disable key bacterial targets.
Dr Matthew Child, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London, said: "The project epitomizes the strengths of Imperial – a team of diverse scientists converging on a challenge faced by humanity, which in this case is Klebsiella AMR. It is exciting to be involved in this international consortium funded by a visionary set of stakeholders, and to have the opportunity to grow the strengths and capacity of the Fleming Initiative with our ambitious project."
Findings will be freely available to research groups around the world, helping to accelerate antibiotic discovery by delivering tools and knowledge that details new targets for drugs and how to design new drug molecules.
The announcement comes ahead of a global summit on AMR in Australia this month, where the Fleming Initiative will convene stakeholders from academia, government and industry to drive action on political commitments on AMR and progress the field.
Professor Alison Holmes, Director of the Fleming Initiative, said: "This award cements the Fleming Initiative's role in translating multidisciplinary science into practical tools for Gram-negative antibiotic discovery. By combining chemistry, life sciences, automation and AI/ML, as well as partnering strategically with leading organisations such as GSK, the Fleming Initiative's Centennial Partner, we aim to create an open, community-driven platform that materially advances the development of new small molecule antibacterials."
