Antimicrobial Resistance: A Dance with Nature

Wednesday 25th Jan 2023, 9.15am

“The process of creating new antibiotics and understanding bacteria with particular mechanisms of resistance is like a dance…”

Antibiotics have saved countless lives since their introduction during the Second World War. They are used to treat infections like pneumonia, and underpin most operations like knee replacements, and cancer therapies.

Unfortunately, bacteria naturally evolve to become resistant to these drugs, in a phenomenon called ‘antimicrobial resistance’ (AMR). This causes antibiotics to be ineffective in routine treatments and surgeries, threatening lives across the globe.

In this video, we hear from researchers at the Ineos Oxford Institute for Antimicrobial Research (IOI), about the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘where’ of resistance, and how their research aims to help tackle the issue.