The Laboratory of Food Safety was established in 2015.  It is part of the Faculty of Life Sciences of the Andrés Bello University. It is Directed by Dr. Andrea Moreno, MICROB-R’s Deputy Director, and co-directed by Dr. Aiko Adell.

This laboratory focuses its work on developing bio-controls on pathogens by using bacteriophages (viruses that kill bacteria).It’s research activities relate to MICROB-R’s Antimicrobial Resistance in the Environment and its Impact on Human Health line of research. Using classic microbiological techniques, genomics and statistics, this laboratory studies animal-origin bacteria and how they are transmitted to humans through food, water and direct contact.

Besides important projects funded by FONDECYT, FONDEF-IDeA and CONICYT Acción Regional, this laboratory works along with American institutions like the Food Safety Lab (FSL) from Cornell University, the Food and Drug Administration from the University of Minnesota, the University of Tennessee, the University of California – Davis (UC Davis) and the University of Maryland. The laboratory also works with Lund University (Sweden) and the University of Chile.

The Laboratory of Food Safety is integrated by 14 academics, professionals and students from different areas.

Group of Antimicrobial Resistance in Pathogenic and Environmental Bacteria, Laboratory of Genetics and Molecular Immunology (LGIM), Institute of Biology, Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso.

Laboratory established in 2015 and directed by MICROB-R associate researcher Jorge Olivares. This centre facilitates the development of MICROB-R’s line of research on Antimicrobial Resistance in the Environment and its Impact on Human Health, with a focus on understanding the phenomenon of antimicrobial resistance from an environmental point of view. In this way, the laboratory channels the research on the role of aquatic environments in the dissemination of antibiotic resistant bacteria and the spread of antibiotic resistant genes. The laboratory has a permanent collaboration with Epilab (under the Centre of Medical Research of the Faculty of Medicine from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile), the Laboratory of Research on Antimicrobial Agents (University of Concepción), the Department of Microbiology from the Institute of Biomedical Science, the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), and the Laboratory for Ecology and Evolution of Antimicrobial Resistance from the National Centre of Biotechnology (Madrid, Spain).

This laboratory is integrated by 8 academics, professionals and students from different areas.

The Laboratory of Genomics and Microbial Resistance is part of the Institute of Science and Innovation in Medicine (ICIM) from the Faculty of Medicine Clínica Alemana Unversidad del Desarrollo. It was established in 2018, and is directed by Dr. José M. Munita, who is also the Director of MICROB-R.

GeRM lab’s activity is fundamentally related to MICROB-R’s line of research of Molecular Epidemiology, Transmission Dynamics and Magnitude of Antimicrobial Resistance on Different Scenarios, using microbiology and classic molecular biology techniques, as well as cutting-edge genomic sequencing.

GeRM has partnerships with local and international research centres, such as the Laboratory of Microbiology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, the Collaborative Group on Bacterial Resistance from the Chilean Infectology Society, the Center for Antimicrobial Resistance and Microbial Genomics (CARMIG) from UTHealth (Houston, Texas, U.S.A.), and the Unit of Genetics and Antimicrobial Resistance from El Bosque University (Bogotá, Colombia).

GeRM is integrated by 11 researchers from different areas, including microbiology, biology, biotechnology, medicine and other health sciences.

The Laboratory for Research on Antibacterial Agents from the University of Concepción (LIAA) is the oldest laboratory on this subject in Chile, and is directed by biologist Gerardo González-Rocha. This lab has been active for about 20 years, but its parent laboratory was established more than 50 years ago. This centre’s research work relates to two of MICROB-R’s line of study:  Antimicrobial resistance in the Environment and its Impact on Human Health, and Molecular Epidemiology, Transmission Dynamics and Magnitude of Antimicrobial Resistance on Different Scenarios.

This laboratory focuses it work on the detection of resistance mechanisms by phenotypic methods (associated to genotype in a determined environment), the susceptibility of bacterial strain and molecular mechanisms of antibiotic resistance.

It’s of special interest LIAA’s research on new components with antimicrobial action on native plants, lichens, fungus and micro-organisms from extreme environments, as well as research on copper’s antibacterial action on different moulds.

The LIAA laboratory complements its research work with important local and international research centres (from the U.S.A., Europe and Latin America). All these partnerships are made with renowned research centres on different health and scientific areas.

This laboratory is integrated by 10 academics, professionals and students from different areas.