Ninety years ago, Alexander Fleming came back from vacation to a petri dish that was covered in a bacteria-killing mold. He had discovered penicillin, the world’s first antibiotic. Now, the world faces an antibiotic crisis. Superbugs have evolved resistance to dozens of drugs, leading to infections that are increasingly difficult to treat. Microbiologist Sean Brady thinks that it is time to shift tactics, and instead of growing antibiotics in a petri dish, he hopes to find them in the ground. He’s off to a good start: In a study published in the journal Nature Microbiology, Brady and his colleagues claim they discovered of a new class of antibiotic extracted from unknown microorganisms living in the soil. They call this class malacidins, and report that it kills several superbugs — including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) — without engendering resistance.
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