Drug resistance from overuse of antibiotics for common infections could kill millions
According to the UK’s special envoy on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) Prof Dame Sally Davies, the COVID-19 pandemic will “look minor” compared with what humanity faces with rise of drug-resistant superbugs. She warns that the issue is "more acute" than climate change and portrays an alarming picture of what can occur if the world does not address the issue in the next ten years. AMR means that some infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites can no longer be treated with available medicines. Exposure to drugs allows these bugs to evolve the ability to resist them, and overuse of drugs such as antibiotics accelerates that process. Drug-resistant infections already kill at least 1.2 million people a year.
MARBLES is researching marine microbiology to investigate this largely underexplored resource for sources of new bioactive molecules. Microbes produce the vast majority of our antibiotics as well as many other bioactive compounds, with anticancer, antifungal, antiviral, anthelmintic and immunosuppressant activity. Recent advances in high-through-put ‘omics’ technologies have revealed that we have only exploited a very small fraction of the enormous chemical space of microbial natural products.