Future Prospective of Omics-System Biology to Control AMR: Recommendations and Directions

The rapid increase in new strains of bacteria resistant to therapeutics demonstrates the need to understand the underlying biological processes. The advancement of technologies to precisely measure small molecules from cells and tissues has pioneered the “omics revolution,” the large-scale study of the genome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, etc., to determine drivers of physiological response to stressors such as pathogens and therapeutics. Each type of omics data allows for specific conclusions to be made regarding a biological system at the level of genes, transcription, proteins, etc. By combining the insights from the measurement of different small molecules, termed multi-omics, through both experimental and computational methods, it may be possible to determine how the flow of information is passed through the biological system. This could lead to the identification of numerous biomarkers in a pathway which are responsible for the changes inducing phenotype. Novel insights regarding the generation of resistant bacteria at the cellular level have been made possible due to the enhanced resolution of current technology which allows researchers to probe individual cells. While considerable progress has been made to elucidate the mechanisms of resistance development, there are numerous challenges that must be overcome to implement the results in a clinical setting. However, as more omics measurements are taken and curated into large databases, the development of new techniques to analyze the data continues, and the conclusions from experiments advance both diagnostic test and therapeutic creation, it is likely multi-omics will be an enormous factor in the understanding of and fight against drug resistance in bacteria.