Sylabus: The aim of the course is to introduce students to the problem of resistance of
bacterial pathogens to antimicrobial agents, which is one of the major health topics of today. The
course will be a combination of the theoretical and practical parts. The theoretical part will
outline the issues of antimicrobial resistance, its emergence and the spread of resistant bacteria
between the human sphere (hospital and community), the veterinary sphere and the
environment, including factors selecting for resistance. We will also discuss the detection and
monitoring of resistant bacteria, prevention of their spread, disinfectants and antiseptics, and
alternatives to antimicrobials. Students will experience laboratory procedures used to capture
and identify resistant bacteria, including various methods of antimicrobial susceptibility testing,
selective culturing, detection of resistance genes, and interpretation of results. Students will also
have the opportunity to try collecting and culturing their own samples followed by
interpretation, giving them an insight into their own 'microbiome'. Programme: Monday:
Theory: Introduction - History and perspectives of the emergence and spread of antimicrobial
resistance; mechanisms of resistance, heteroresistance, persistence and tolerance to antibiotics
Practice: Procedure for selective cultivation of resistant pathogens - sampling, inoculation of
media. Tuesday: Theory: Resistant bacteria in hospital - risk groups, antibiotics prescription
policy, monitoring of usage of antibiotics. Practice: Methods of antibiotic susceptibility testing -
disc diffusion method, e-test, determination of minimum inhibitory concentration; phenotypic
tests to determine the mechanism of resistance - inducible resistance to lincosamides, beta-
lactamase. Wednesday: Theory: Prevention of the spread of resistant bacteria, hospital
outbreaks, disinfection, antiseptics. Practice: Results of susceptibility testing and its
interpretation. Thursday: Theory: Resistant bacteria outside the hospital - community
(community-associated MRSA), animals as a source of resistant bacteria, risk groups, antibiotics
and resistant bacteria in the environment around us. Practise: Detection of ATB resistance and
monitoring the spread of resistant bacteria by PCR and whole-genome sequencing - molecular
epidemiology methods, data analysis, bioinformatics tools, opportunities and limitations Friday :
Theory: The dark side of antibiotic treatment - disrupted microbiome and related diseases;
Alternatives to antibiotics - probiotics, faecal transplantation, bacteriophages. Lecturers: Jan
Tkadlec, Ph.D. Marcela Krůtová, Ph. D.
