Engineering a superbug fightback

From organ transplantation and stem cell therapy to surgical robots and advanced prosthetics we live in an age of medical marvels: where once fatal diseases have been eradicated and cures to some of humanity’s most devastating illnesses lie within reach.

And yet, around the world experts are increasingly concerned that we stand on the brink of a dark age of medicine, where once common diseases become untreatable and routine medical procedures become a matter of life and death.

It is feared that the astonishing progress of the last century could unravel in the face of the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR): the ability of microbes such as bacteria to resist the drugs - in particular antibiotics - that have underpinned many of the healthcare advances we take for granted.

According to the World Health Organisation, an estimated 700,000 people every year now die from drug resistant diseases, and this figure is projected to grow rapidly. The UK government’s 2014 O’Neill Review, carried out by British economist Lord Jim O’Neill, warns of a post antibiotic apocalypse that could kill 10 million people a year by 2050; force up to 24 million into extreme poverty; and devastate the global economy.