Iowa State will be home to the new Institute for Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Education, aimed at improving health for people, animals and the environment.

The institute stems from recommendations by a joint Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges task force, which authored a 2015 report outlining an array of research and education initiatives to address antimicrobial resistance.

The institute will help coordinate and implement those recommendations at universities and veterinary medical colleges across the country.

On July 26 the AAVMC and the APLU announced that Iowa State will lead a national institute addressing antimicrobial resistance, a growing public health concern due to increased reports of sickness and death due to resistance of antibiotics.

In a press release on the new center, Iowa State said drug-resistant “superbugs” harm the ecosystem and cost multi-billions in medical costs and economic losses.

At least 2 million people each year become infected with bacteria resistant to antibiotics and 23,000 people die as a direct result of these infections, according to that same press release.

The joint task force made of the AAVMC and the APLU authorized a report in 2015 outlining an array of education and research initiatives to address antimicrobial resistance. This institute will help implement and coordinate those recommendations at universities and veterinary medical colleges across the country.

Iowa State and its partners began to address some of these same issues in 2015 through the Antimicrobial Resistance Consortium. This has involved nearly every Iowa State college, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, USDA Agricultural Research Service, the University of Iowa, Mayo Clinic, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a team of more than 100 researchers, educators, clinicians and extension personnel.

Iowa State will provide office space and IT support for the institute, which will be jointly funded by ISU and the University of Nebraska at $525,000 per year for three years totalling $1.575 million.

“We have been working to find a team to lead an effort to coordinate and lead a network across the country, and potentially the globe, to facilitate better research and efforts towards resistance,” said Paul Plummer, associate professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine at Iowa State, and now executive director of the Institute for Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Education.  “We’re really excited about the opportunity and the confidence that has been placed in us and this effort.”

Plummer said the institute will be benefited by the Iowa State community as well.

“We are looking to continue to build and expand the other academic routes,” Plummer said. “We believe by doing so we can provide the community a way to try and improve and increase the research outcomes by letting everybody know what projects are going on in other areas. If we can pull together those various teams, that is only gonna benefits the outcomes of the research.”