OHAMR Call for proposals 2026

General Information

• Type: Partner looking for project
• Organisation: IOR (Orthopaedic Rizzoli Institute)
• Country: Italy (IT)
• Career stage: Other.

Research area

• Scientific area(s) of the call:
  1. Topic 1: Identify and develop new combination treatments using existing or innovative antimicrobials or antimicrobial with adjunctive treatments to extend drug efficacy and combat resistance.
• One Health Setting:

  H - Human Health

• Keywords:

  Antibiotic Resistance; Antimicrobial Phytocompounds; Bacterial Biofilm; New Therapies; ESKAPEE.

• Brief description of your expertise / expertise you are looking for:

  The main subject is the significance of new strategies based on the use of anti-infective (nanostructured antibacterial films, natural substances, phytocompounds and antibacterial peptides) to prevent the bacterial adhesion and colonization. Other topics are the studies of the pathological interactions between bacteria and eukaryotic cells, the behaviour and interactions of eukaryotic cells exposed to anti-infective substances. Pathogenesis of the implant-associated infections, the role of new emerging opportunistic pathogens and their characterization in term of genetic diversity and virulence factors (i.e., studies on biofilm; bacterial invasiveness; genetic detection of adhesins, toxins, IS256, and antibiotic resistance traits). Molecular epidemiology studies such as the identification of new emerging or the most prevalent bacterial clones through genotypic characterization (automated Ribotyping, MLST, spa typing, SCCmec typing, agr typing, PFGE). Our Laboratory manages a collection of approximately 3000 clinical isolates responsible for orthopaedic infections collected at the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute. The most prevalent microorganisms belong to the Staphylococcus genus, to the Enterobacteriaceae family, to the Pseudomonas genus and to the Enterococcus genus with particular interest for those belonging to ESKAPEE (E. faecium, S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii, P. aeruginosa, Enterobacter spp. and E. coli) pathogens with alarming antimicrobial resistance.

• Brief description of your project / the project you would like to join:

  We are looking for a project consortium that considers approaches as for example the combination of antimicrobials from natural sources, phytocompounds, antimicrobial peptides or antimicrobial oligonucleotides with antibiotics used in traditional therapies aiming to achieve a synergistic effect. The study could be conducted using both reference strains from ATCC collection and ESKAPE clinical isolates (with the use of some clonal complexes for each microbial species) tested both in planktonic and biofilm status.

Stefano Ravaioli

• Organisation: IOR (Orthopaedic Rizzoli Institute)
• Position: Health Researcher
• E-mail: stefano.ravaioli@ior.it