UEMF hosts an international scientific dissemination project on antimicrobial resistance and the fight against superbugs

Micromonde, an international project developed in seventeen countries to bring scientific culture and biomedical research closer to different educational levels and promote a research vocation, concluded its first edition on the campus of the Université Euromed de Fès (UEMF), with the participation of over 100 students. During the final week, university students from Pharmacy, Biomedical and Biotechnological Engineering programs, along with teachers from the UEMF Health Academic Division and the Department of Microbiology and Ecology of the University of Valencia (Spain), supervised the execution of experiments aimed at discovering new bacterial strains that produce antibiotics.

Nearly 100 students from the Euromed Faculty of Pharmacy and the Euromed School of Biomedical and Biotechnological Engineering received specific training on the program. Five practical sessions were conducted, alternating with theoretical training during which students learned about the problem of bacterial resistance to antibiotics and its socio-economic impact, while assimilating different experimental methodologies.

This project-based learning (PBL) project is a different way of teaching that helps students think critically, work together, and actively solve problems.

Guest professor Mr. Sergi Maicas (project coordinator at the University of Valencia with Professor Belén Fouz) and Pr. Ismail Moukadiri (Project Coordinator at Euromed University) participated in the closing ceremony, along with various UEMF officials: the Vice President for Research, Innovation and Partnerships, Pr. Salim Bounou; the Vice President for the Health Academic Division, Pr. Chakib Nejjari; and the Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy, Pr. Samir Ahid.

Small World Initiative is an international scientific project that emerged at Yale University (USA) in 2012 as a strategy to encourage young people's vocation for scientific research and to address a pressing health problem such as the need to find new antibiotics effective against infectious diseases. Its success in its country of origin led the project to expand to many countries in the following years.

International Consortia

The UEMF-MicroMondeMaroc (UEMF-3M) project implemented international projects (Small World Initiative, Tiny Earth) as well as Spanish-Portuguese projects (MicroMundo) in Morocco for the first time. The project is funded by UEMF. Professor Sergi Maicas participated thanks to a cooperation grant RI_IP_3186424 from the University of Valencia. The Micromundo project in Spain is supported by the Spanish Society of Microbiology and the National Antibiotic Resistance Plan, and its dissemination is managed by the Scientific Culture Unit - Chair of Scientific Dissemination of the University of Valencia.