Head of unit: Prof. Liselotte Hardy

The Unit of Tropical Bacteriology (UTB) was created in 2008 in the Department of Clinical Sciences at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp, Belgium. It is headed by Prof. Liselotte Hardy. UTB combines biomedical research, education and support of laboratory services. We focus on development and implementation of field-appropriate bacterial diagnostics and local production of culture media, building on the unit’s longstanding work on surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In order to achieve real impact we work closely together with the laboratory teams of our partner institutions in low- and middle-income countries.

The UTB is involved in capacity sharing and operational research programs in resource-limited settings addressing clinical bacteriology and development and implementation of adapted diagnostics.

Research is further extended to tropical bacterial diseases such as invasive salmonellosis. Oversea partners and projects are located – amongst others – in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Peru.

As to education and training the UTB is actively involved in the postgraduate courses at ITM (sessions on diagnostics and laboratory medicine) and organizes the Field Laboratory Preparedness course, a short course on operating a clinical laboratory in resource-limited settings according to quality management system principles.