Mass Eye and Ear is part of a Harvard Medical School (HMS) program awarded $104 million in funding from the recently created federal agency, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), to develop new ways to treat and prevent antibiotic resistant infection. The new research program is called DARTS: Defeating Antibiotic Resistance through Transformative Solutions, and includes experts from 21 US research centers.
Michael S. Gilmore, PhD, the Sir William Osler Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, will lead the program at Mass Eye and Ear. Since 2014, the hospital has been the recipient of nearly $40 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop new ways to treat and prevent antibiotic resistant infection.
The ARPA-H grant is being led by Harvard Medical School researcher Johan Paulsson. Paulsson is a member of the Harvard-wide Program on Antibiotic Resistance, a program led by Michael that unites investigators from across the Harvard landscape in a multidisciplinary collaboration to determine the causes of antibiotic resistance, and to identify new approaches to defeat it.
“This represents a major step forward for the field and will bring together scientists in new ways to solve a problem that is far greater than any one lab can handle,” said Dr. Gilmore. “I have been delighted to have Dr. Paulsson as a member of our team, and now am truly thrilled to be part of his.” Read the full press release