Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the century’s most pressing global development, food security, and public health threats. To date, there remains no rapid, point-of-care diagnostic for the detection of AMR in humans or animals. Consequently, laboratories rely on culture-based laboratory methods which require trained personnel, reagents and equipment, and adequate laboratory safety environments with access to clean water and power. Despite technological advancements and automation of laboratory methods, culture-based methods still take between 18 and 24 hours to produce clinically actionable results. From a clinical perspective, this time requirement is unsuitable in outpatient settings or for patients with life-threatening infections in need of immediate and effective treatment.
Biomarker and proteomics technology has progressed rapidly in recent decades, spurring a rapid increase of data describing potential genetic, proteomic, and metabolic biomarker profiles of health, susceptibility to disease, and disease progression, among other clinical and biological applications. Traditionally, biomarker profiles are applied to non-communicable diseases; however, there is a small body of emerging evidence investigating the role of mass-spectrometry in combination with machine learning tools in detecting drug-resistant pathogens. Identifying biomarkers or biomarker profiles that aid in the clinical diagnosis and risk stratification of patients with community- and/or hospital-acquired infections would fill a current clinical capacity gap. At present, existing literature on biomarker discovery for AMR is largely confined to high-resource settings in the global north, omitting diversity and overlooking local AMR burden and challenges faced in low-resource settings where the AMR burden is highest. Therefore, conducting AMR biomarker research in additional countries could further inform the feasibility of these research methods in the global context.
Scitel Global, Inc. is leading a project that utilizes metabolic and proteomic biomarker discovery platforms to conduct retrospective and prospective pilot studies to identify biomarkers associated with infectious disease risk and treatment failure due to prevalent drug-resistant pathogens at sentinel sites in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia. The Project Manager will lead project coordination across sentinel sites and will be directly involved in all aspects of the project from protocol development and stakeholder engagement to data collection, analysis, and reporting.
Qualifications
Master’s degree with at least 5 years of experience in relevant public health research, or a Bachelor’s degree with additional work experience
At least 3 years of experience managing large, multi-site, multi-national research projects
Familiarity with infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance
Expertise in biomarkers research including in protocol development
Familiarity and demonstrated experience with data analysis and analytical programs such as R, SAS, STATA, etc.
English proficiency is required.
Applicants may be citizens of any country. Applicants may work remotely or on-site. Occasional international travel to participating sentinel sites will be required.
To apply
E-mail your resume and cover letter to communications@scitel-global.org with the subject line “Project Manager- Biomarkers & AMR.”