Antibiotic resistance emerges when bacteria develop the ability to overcome the drugs designed to kill them, threatening many medical procedures dependent on the ability to treat infections with antibiotics, such as organ transplants. Every year, approximately 700,000 people are estimated to die due to infection by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, with this number expected to rise into the millions in coming years.
Without effective antibiotics, life expectancy could drop by 20 years, prompting urgent efforts to develop new antibiotics faster than microbes can mutate and form new defences.
A team of researchers from around the world, co-led by the University of Portsmouth’s Dr Gerhard Koenig, are using supercomputers to fight the threat. The scientists are redesigning existing antibiotics to keep up with the changing nature of infection.
“Antibiotics are one of the pillars of modern medicine and antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to human...