Discovering Novel Natural Products to Combat Antibiotic Resistant Pathogens

Antibiotic resistance is rising, but most new drugs are just tweaks of old ones. Many soil microbes could make new antibiotics, but most can’t be grown in the lab. In this study, we used special chambers to grow hidden microbes from Australian soils, finding many that kill drug-resistant bacteria. We analysed their chemistry and DNA, identifying clusters of genes likely to produce new compounds. Some of these were transferred into friendly lab microbes to make the drugs for testing. This approach reveals soil bacteria as a powerful but underused source of future antibiotics.