Image courtesy of the Feinberg School of Medicine.
The problem of antibiotic resistance has reached the crisis stage. Increasing rates of resistance to current antibiotics has been accompanied by the slowing in development of new antibiotics by the pharmaceutical industry. The convergence of these trends has led to the relatively common occurrence of multidrug-resistant, extensively drug-resistant, and even pan-resistant microbes. The WHO recently reported “A post-antibiotic era—in which common infections and minor injuries can kill—far from being an apocalyptic fantasy is instead a very real possibility for the 21st century.” EREPP investigators and their collaborators are identifying novel mechanisms by which microbes become resistant to antibiotics, characterizing transmission routes that allow multi-drug resistant organisms to spread from patient to patient, and developing alternatives to antibiotic therapies. Together, these studies are contributing to efforts to stem the tide of increasing antimicrobial resistance.