Superbugs

Deadly, drug-resistant forms of K. pneumoniae bacteria are spreading. Thankfully a new vaccine has shown promise in tests on mice.

Researchers at Imperial College London have found that a high-priority superbug resists drugs by closing its pores.

Bacteria are rapidly developing resistance to our best drugs, hurtling us towards a future where antibiotics simply don’t work anymore. Now researchers have uncovered a potentially exploitable chink in the armor of a particularly troublesome group of bacteria.

Humans are currently locked in an arms race against pathogenic bacteria – and we’re losing. Now scientists have identified the genes responsible for antibiotic resistance in a particularly dangerous superbug, and found a way to thwart them.

A team from Aston University examined almost 20,000 insects collected from hospitals across the UK, and studied the kinds of bacteria they were carrying. The vast majority were found to host potentially harmful bacteria, more than half of which were resistant to some kinds of antibiotics.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria might also be one of the biggest medical issues of the 21st century. Now, a bacterial gene that grants resistance to “last resort” antibiotics has been detected in a patient in the US, for the first time.

Microorganisms are becoming resistant to drugs, hurtling us towards a terrifying future where once-easily-treated infections become potentially life-threatening again. Now researchers have tested an alternative to antibiotics, using existing drugs to starve a fungal infection of vital nutrients.

The latest newly uncovered threat in the world of superbugs comes from scientists at Cornell University, who have discovered a previously unknown gene that can leap between organisms to facilitate resistance to an important last-resort antibiotic. ​

Bacteria are quickly evolving resistances to antibiotics, to the extent that our best drugs might not work in the terrifyingly-near future. Now, researchers from Thomas Jefferson University have found a new way to weaken bacterial defenses, slowing down the development of antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotics were one of the 20th century's most important scientific discoveries, but their usefulness is quickly fading. Researchers at Purdue University have found that blue light can weaken a particularly nasty “superbug” and make it vulnerable to even mild antiseptics again.

Bacteria are fast evolving resistance to antibiotics. A long term strategy might be to prevent them from evolving in the first place. A new study has found that bacteria use clever gambles to adapt – and showed how we could rig the game in our favor.

​The growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is seeing scientists get more and more creative in their search for new drugs that might help us maintain the upper hand. Researchers have uncovered what they say is a potential goldmine of antibiotics in the form of fish slime.