Superbugs

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.

Researchers have revealed the discovery of antibiotic-resistant genes in remote Arctic soil samples. The genes in question were only first identified a few years ago and have rapidly spread across 100 countries, into areas thousands of miles away with almost no human presence.

We might be losing the war against bacteria, as they rapidly develop resistance to our best drugs. Now researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have found a way to potentially prevent bacteria from spreading antibiotic resistance to each other.

It almost goes without saying that space is a pretty harsh environment. Now researchers have examined what effects that environment might have on bacteria, and found that the bugs are mutating in response – but that probably isn’t cause for concern.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose an ever-growing threat to human health. But looking to the past might help our future – researchers from Swansea University Medical School have discovered a new potential superbug killer in Irish soil, which has long been believed to have healing properties.