Question: Do you work new antibiotics or a different thing to stop the infections?

Jessica Forsyth answered on 8 Dec 2020:

I work on a different method for treating bacterial infections rather than inventing new antibiotics. The production and manufacturing of new antibiotics is mainly carried out by big pharmaceutical companies that then go on to sell them. Due to our over consumption and mis-use of antibiotics, many bacteria are becoming resistant, that is, they are no longer killed by antibiotics and can persist and continue to make you unwell. This is referred to as the evolution of resistance. Resistance to antibiotics can develop and spread in a very short period of time. What this means is that after a pharmaceutical company has spent a lot of time and money producing a new antibiotic, it becomes useless within a few months or a few years and they don’t earn their money back. This problem has led to what we call the drying up of the antibiotic pipeline. Companies are not producing many more new antibiotics which makes it even more important for scientists like me to try and figure out new ways to treat these infections! Currently I’m investigating the use of bacteriophages to treat resistant bacterial infections. The word bacteriophages translates directly to ‘bacteria eater’ and that is exactly what they do. They are viruses that eat, and therefore kill, bacteria. They are found everywhere around us, in the water, in the soil and even in our own guts. We can use these bacteriophages to our advantage. That is, if we find one that can specifically ‘eats’ resistant bacterial strains, then we can use it to remove resistant bacteria from our guts. Once you remove the bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics, the rest can be treated and you can be made healthy once again!