Our Goal

The necessity of BioResist stands on the rise of multi-resistant bacteria which is one of the most critical threats to global health. Many bacterial species evolved the ability to tolerate antibiotics long before humans started to mass-produce them to prevent and treat infectious diseases. The selection pressure in the environment might have played a key role as the driving force of the evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance mechanisms. In this regard, there is an urgent need to get a better understanding on how the extreme physicochemical and geochemical conditions in the environment can favour the selection of resistant microbes.

The main goal of BioResist is to explore the antibiotic resistance phenomenon in microbial communities from extreme environments, its evolutionary origin and its ecological significance, to unravel the complex and interrelated roles of environmental sources and to evaluate possible interconnections with global health.

BioResist will use a combination of culture‐based techniques and deep metagenomic sequencing in order

1) to explore the Origin and Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance Mechanisms in microbial communities, in a series of difficulty accessed extreme environments, including the ancient subsurface sediments of the Hellenic Volcanic Arc (HVA) and

2) to assess their relationship with heavy metal levels and geochemical processes.

From the ancient deep subsurface to the modern‐day hot and enriched in heavy metals hydrothermal vent environments of the HVA, BioResist project will aim to shed light on the origin and evolution of antibiotic resistance mechanisms in microorganisms.