Tag: Foundation for Strategic Research

Over the last week, I have been featured in media in different ways, so here’s a quick summary.

I was asked to provide a comment on a recent paper on how microplastics affect antibiotic resistance development (1) for an article in Scientific American (2). I am not sure I had that much intelligent to say, other than to caution about jumping to conclusions, as we still know quite little about the risks associated with microplastics and AMR: “How much of a threat plastic-derived drug-resistant pathogens pose to humans is a question that remains to be fully understood” is one of my two quotes from the article.

I also was interviewed last week for Swedish Radio’s Vetenskapsradion (in Swedish) about another study showing that, e.g., ibuprofen could drive bacteria to higher mutation rates, indirectly triggering antibiotic resistance development (3). Such interaction effects have also been seen elsewhere (4), but the fact that they see this effect for such a commonly used drug as ibuprofen – one of our most standard painkillers – is a little bit concerning. Still I stress in the interview that we need to know much more about these interaction effects before jumping to clinical guidance.

Finally, the Foundation for Strategic Research has released the video they recorded about our research last fall. It is in Swedish, but with English subtitles, so this could be worth a watch!

References

1. Gross N, Muhvich J, Ching C, Gomez B, Horvath E,Nahum Y, Zaman MH: Effects of microplastic concentration, composition, and size on Escherichia coli biofilm-associated antimicrobial resistance. Appl Environ Microbiol, 91, e02282-24, (2025). https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.02282-24
2. Zaraska M: Microplastics Could Be Turning Bacteria into Drug-Resistant Superbugs. Scientific American, 2025-08-26. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/microplastics-could-be-creating-dangerous-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria/
3. Chen H, Sapula SA, Turnidge J, et al.: The effect of commonly used non-antibiotic medications on antimicrobial resistance development in Escherichia coli. npj Antimicrob Resist 3, 73 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44259-025-00144-w
4. Maier L, Pruteanu M, Kuhn M, et al.: Extensive impact of non-antibiotic drugs on human gut bacteria. Nature 555, 623–628 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature25979

I am extremely happy to share the news that the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research has selected me as one of 16 young research leaders to receive their 15 million SEK grant awarded to give newly established researchers with high scientific and pedagogical competence the opportunity to develop as research leaders.

This grant is one of the more prestigious grants for young researchers in Sweden that I know of and I am very honored and thankful, both towards the foundation and my research group who have made this possible, to receive this grant. In combination with the DDLS funding from the Wallenberg Foundation, this will provide the lab with some very nice opportunities to explore more far-reaching endeavors in the next couple of years, which sets the stage for a very exciting half-decade to come!

Finally, I am also happy to see (after my ten-years old criticism of the gender distributions of these grants) that the distribution of grants this year was approximately gender-equal (seven out of 16 recipient were women). This is a good sign for both future Swedish research and the trustworthiness of these grants themselves.