Supporting the Fight Against Antibiotic Resistance

The U.S. National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic‑Resistant Bacteria highlights the need for bacterial repositories to aid:

  1. Companies developing new antibiotics, therapeutics, or next‑generation diagnostics
  2. Diagnostic test developers and regulatory agencies evaluating those tests
  3. Government facilities, academic laboratories, and pharmaceutical companies assessing clinical effectiveness of antibiotics
  4. Researchers, regulators, and others measuring the impact of interventions that prevent resistance

In response, the Multidrug‑resistant Organism Repository and Surveillance Network (MRSN) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research curated three panels of genetically diverse clinical isolates—Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii. All isolates, genome sequences, and associated metadata (including full antibiotic‑susceptibility profiles) are available free of charge to the scientific community.

Klebsiella pneumoniae Diversity Panel

• Size & scope: 100 isolates selected from 3 878 strains collected in 19 countries (2001–2020).
• Range: Pan‑sensitive to extensively drug‑resistant (XDR), including hyper‑virulent and pandemic lineages.

Read more:
Martin MJ et al. “A panel of diverse Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical isolates for research and development.” Microb Genom 9(5):mgen000967 (2023). DOI: 10.1099/mgen.0.000967

Order here: BEI Resources catalogue #NR‑55604 (https://www.beiresources.org/)

Pseudomonas aeruginosa Diversity Panel

• Size & scope: 100 isolates representing 91 sequence types (2003–2017).
• Range: Pan‑sensitive to pan‑resistant; includes several major epidemic clones with detailed genomic data.

Read more:
Lebreton F et al. “A panel of diverse Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates for research and development.” JAC Antimicrob Resist 3(4):dlab179 (2021). DOI: 10.1093/jacamr/dlab179

Order here: BEI Resources catalogue #NR‑51829 (https://www.beiresources.org/)

Acinetobacter baumannii Diversity Panel

• Size & scope: 100 isolates collected globally from healthcare settings (2001–2017).
• Range: Pansensitive to panresistant; >100 AMR‑gene variants across 32 families, covering 70 sequence types.

Read more:
Galac MR et al. “A Diverse Panel of Clinical Acinetobacter baumannii for Research and Development.” Antimicrob Agents Chemother 64(10):e00840‑20 (2020). DOI: 10.1128/AAC.00840‑20

Order here: BEI Resources catalogue #NR‑52248 (https://www.beiresources.org/)