$1 M health grant awarded to University of Regina

Antibiotic resistance is a growing concern in the world of health and the University of Regina's chemistry and biochemistry department is poised to tackle the issue.

The U of R department was awarded a $1,123,815 grant to be paid out over five years from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to research how genes work to resist antibiotics.

The information collected from the research can help create new treatments to help bacterial infections like pneumonia and E.coli.

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"Bacteria is constantly evolving (and) any antibiotic treatment in the clinics is not working," said Mohan Babu, an assistant professor with the department.

"Penicillin that we use to feel good is not even working anymore because of the antibiotic resistance."

According to Babu, once they figure out how the genes work together, they can move forward to developing targets on how to tackle the problem of genes becoming resistant to antibiotics.

Canada's Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Ralph Goodale made the announcement on behalf of Health Minister Jane Philpott.

"A CIHR award is a symbol of excellence," Goodale said.