University of Colorado Boulder Students Begin the First ARMOR Chapter

In an effort to raise awareness about AMR in the community, ARC Labs has started ARMOR (Antimicrobial Resistance Mediation Outreach) to encourage individuals to educate their communities about AMR and foster responsible use of antimicrobials. The program is designed to empower individuals to spearhead this movement on a local level, by offering downloadable content, project ideas, and inspiration.

Several students at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) took charge and have officially established their own ARMOR Chapter. “We want CU to be a leader in preventing this issue from become a devastating global crisis,” said founding member Colleen McCollum when she applied to make ARMOR a student group. Supported by CU faculty Dr. Anushree Chatterjee and Dr. Prashant Nagpal, involved graduate and undergraduate students have been meeting weekly to apply for funding, come up with project ideas, and start building their presence on campus.

“This is a great opportunity for pre-med students,” commented founding member Dana Stamo, “Antibiotic stewardship is so important in the medical field, it’s really amazing to apply for medical schools having already demonstrated your commitment to that.”

Currently, the members of ARMOR are focusing on recruitment and raising awareness about their group, but they have big plans for future projects. A motivating factor for forming this group is CU’s use of antimicrobial soaps and the CU ARMOR chapter is hoping to tackle this issue with campaigning and petitioning this spring.

Catalyzed by Dr. Anushree Chatterjee, the students also contribute to the Global ARMOR Video Project, which gathers videos of people sharing their perspectives on AMR. “We want to show that AMR affects people from all walks of life,” stated Dr. Chatterjee. These videos are available on ARC’s YouTube, AMRconsortium.

CU Boulder has taken incredible initiative on combatting AMR. We’ll definitely be keeping an eye on them to see what great feats they accomplish.
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If you want to start your own ARMOR chapter at your school or within your community, click below for official downloadable content that you can use to get started.