The dangers presented by antibiotic resistance (ABR) have now established themselves as a global health security issue. From an international policy perspective, three key pillars have been established - responsible access, conservation, and innovation. These pillars are intrinsically linked, meaning that any attempt to address one, must take into account the implications for the other two. Thi...

Pathogenic bacteria resistant to many or all antibiotics already exist. With the decline in microbiological research at pharmaceutical companies, the high rate at which resistance has evolved and spread has demanded a novel approach to addressing this critical human health issue. In the present paper, we propose a new paradigm in antibiotic discovery and development, one that applies ecological...

The goal of the work reported here was to help students expand their understanding of antibiotic resistance, the Central Dogma, and evolution. We developed a unit entitled "Ciprofloxacin Resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae," which was constructed according to the principles of scientific teaching by a team of graduate students, science faculty, and instructors. A variety of activities and asses...

Plasmids play a key role in bacterial evolution by providing bacteria with new and important functions, such as antibiotic resistance. New research shows how bacterial regulatory evolution can stabilize bacteria-plasmid associations and catalyze evolutionary innovation.

Human intestinal bacteria have many roles in human health, most of which are beneficial or neutral for the host. In this review, we explore a more sinister side of intestinal bacteria; their role as traffickers in antibiotic resistance genes. Evidence is accumulating to support the hypothesis that intestinal bacteria not only exchange resistance genes among themselves but might also interact wi...

We must change how antibiotics are used and adopt proactive strategies, similar to those used to save endangered species. Preservation of the efficacy of antibiotics and to stabilization of antibiotic-susceptible bacterial ecosystems should be global goals.

Pyrolysis mass spectrometry (Py-MS) has been used to discriminate between four very closely related strains of Escherichia coli; a parent strain UB5021 and three derivatives each containing one of the antibiotic resistance plasmids, pBR322, pACYC184 or R388.

This review will discuss a number of molecular tools which are currently used as well as some innovative approaches for the characterisation of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. Various methods involved in the detection and characterisation of genes and mutations associated with antibiotic resistance and that are used for strain typing as part of epidemiological studies, are described. Fu...