March 10, 2025
Alberta Innovates is at the forefront of combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through a comprehensive One Health approach. By funding innovative research and technologies, Alberta Innovates aims to prevent the spread of AMR, ensuring a healthier future for both humans and animals.
Antibiotics are the go-to treatment for the world’s most harmful bacterial infections, but the rising incidence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) presents significant health care challenges. The indiscriminate use of antibiotics in human and animal health has led to a rise in not only the number of AMR species, but also multidrug resistance for any given species. According to the Canadian Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (CARSS), antimicrobial infections are harder to treat and can be linked to more severe medical outcomes. Currently, AMR bacteria affect every 1 in 220 patients in Canada. The Council of Canadian Academies has also predicted that the number of cases in Canada could rise to 40% by 2050, costing Canada nearly $100 trillion dollars.
Alberta Innovates supports efforts in combatting AMR from a One Health approach, tracking the spread of AMR from environment to food and into our hospital systems. Alberta Innovates funds investigators and projects that push the research and innovation in AMR technology forward in preventing the growth and prevalence of AMR in healthcare and agriculture.
For example, Alberta Innovates recruited Dr. Ian Lewis, Founder of Rapid Infections Diagnostics Ltd., as a Translational Research Chair. By funding different areas of his research, Alberta Innovates played a role in the development of a new standard of metabolic-based diagnostic technology, which allows health care professionals to diagnose health conditions and diseases based on the molecules that play a role in how our bodies convert food into energy.
These projects highlight the drive to ensure a healthy future for Albertans through investing in antibiotic alternatives and innovations in wound care and antimicrobial technology.
Protection in Poultry
Chickens play an important role in antimicrobial resistance. Animals, specifically the livestock that appear on our dinner plates, are a growing AMR concern in our province. In 2024, Dr. Guanqun (Gavin) Chen from the University of Alberta replaced the use of antibiotics in poultry production with a form of enriched yeast. The yeast showed the potential to provide the Alberta poultry industry with a sustainable solution to AMR that promotes healthy growth and treatment in our chickens.
This project was funded by Alberta Innovates in partnership with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Alberta Chicken Producers, the Canadian Poultry Research Council, and Diamond V. This research contributes to ongoing research in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Alberta’s livestock.
Read more about the project here: Development of Functional Yeast Enriched in Punicic Acid for the Reduced Use of Antibiotics in Poultry
Combating Infection
A simple cut is bacteria’s favourite place to grow. This is why wound care is a major area of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research. Biofilms, colonies of bacteria that become resistant to antibiotics, can form in and around deep or chronic wounds.
Through Alberta Innovates’ Accelerating Innovations into CarE- Validate Program (AICE-Validate) program, MHCombiotic to create ComBatic, a wound care treatment designed to treat and prevent complex, non-healing, mixed-infection wounds using antimicrobial agents that kill bacteria.
Developing an FDA-approved, optimized wound care treatments like ComBatic not only advances research in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) but also plays a crucial role in improving the health and care of Albertans.
Read more about the project here: Innovative Novel Antimicrobial Would Treatment (ComBatic)
Covering our healthcare
Infections cost the Canadian healthcare system nearly a billion dollars every year. Coating medical equipment with silver-based, antimicrobial agents that kill bacteria is one solution to the spread of antibiotic-resistant germs.
The innovative, re-deployment of InnovoSIL™-1, one such compound, was funded by Alberta Innovates under the Accelerating Innovations into CarE- Validate Program (AICE-Validate). In addition, the University of Calgary and The Biofilm Research Group (BRG) supported Innovotech’s goals of increasing production of InnovoSIL™-1, improving compatibility with medical equipment, enabling long-lasting capabilities, and ensuring that hospitals and medical facilities had access to it.
Projects like InnovoSIL™-1 support AMR research and provides Alberta’s healthcare system with tangible solutions to preventing infections and enhancing the safety and health of patients across the province.
Read more about this project here: Using antimicrobial silver coatings for medical devices and wound care products
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing concern across many sectors of our province, affecting the lives and livestock of Albertans. Alberta Innovates is dedicated to funding projects that confront the challenge AMR poses to the health of Albertans to ensure a healthy future for all.
To learn more about Alberta Innovates and the efforts being made across the province to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR), join us at the One Health: Antimicrobial Resistance and Emerging Zoonoses Conference, in Calgary, Alberta from March 11-14, 2025.