Célia Manaia has a background in Biochemistry and a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Coimbra, Portugal. She obtained her Habilitation at the Catholic University of Portugal in Porto. Manaia is currently Associate Professor of Microbiology and Genetics at the Biotechnology school of the Catholic University of Portugal, where she also coordinates the bachelor’s in microbiology and the master’s programs in related fields. At the Porto Regional Center of the same university, she serves as Vice-President for Research and Internationalization.
As a researcher, she leads the Bacterial Ecology Group at the Centre of Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry. Her work focuses on bacterial taxonomy, evolution, and ecology, with particular emphasis on human-environment interfaces and the environmental dissemination of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. She has made significant contributions to understanding the impact of wastewater treatment plant emissions, the risks associated with water reuse, the tracking of resistant bacteria and genes in the environment, and the evolution of advanced water treatment processes. She has also contributed to international efforts to harmonize methodologies for monitoring antibiotic resistance in water environment.
Célia Manaia has integrated international research consortia and collaborated with public organizations and businesses, including WHO, FAO, and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. She currently holds several leadership roles and editorial roles: Vice-President of the Portuguese Society of Microbiology, member of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes, Editor of the International Journal of Systematics and Evolutionary Microbiology (Microbiology Society, UK), and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Science: Advances (The Royal Society of Chemistry, UK).
Antibiotic Resistance in the Wild: When a Clinical Problem Becomes Everyone’s Problem
Bacterial antimicrobial resistance (bAMR) is mostly reported in hospital and clinical settings. In 2021, it was estimated that 4·71 million deaths were directly or indirectly associated with bacterial bAMR [1]. However, bAMR is not confined to clinical settings – it originates outside these settings, enters them, and can subsequently spread to any environment where it can persist and thrive. This boundary-free vision of the bAMR distribution is aligned with the One Health concept, a multisectoral and holistic approach to promote human health in harmony with the animal health and welfare and environmental quality and protection.
The One Health approach is extraordinarily wise and of potential high impact, but its implementation to control bAMR is still suboptimal due to technical and organizational constraints. In particular, the role of the environment as a habitat and pathway for bAMR spread and transmission through trophic chains and interface domains still requires significant improvement. In parallel, environmental bAMR is only one part of the massive load of contaminants that reach soils, water bodies, and the air. Climate events, mass migrations, refugee crises, and war scenarios are all potential drivers for bAMR spread.
Actions to combat bAMR have been in place for decades and have had positive impacts; however, mitigation efforts appear insufficient to contain what can be considered a dangerous silent pandemic. Nevertheless, technical and scientific developments are opening new opportunities. In this sense, while microbiological approaches aimed at tackling unwanted microorganisms have mainly focused on their selective elimination, it may be high time to change this paradigm. A strong argument is that the best entities to fight unwanted microorganisms are the beneficial ones, those that can create barriers to invasion and antagonize cheaters and exploiters, thereby stabilizing the system.
Bibliography
[1] GBD 2021 Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators. Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance 1990-2021: a systematic analysis with forecasts to 2050. Lancet. 2024, 404(10459):1199-1226. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01867-1.
