Bacteria's Dual Nature - Navigating between Friendship and Enmity

Modern medicine hinges on antibiotics to kill off bacterial infections—but they don't work so well anymore. Bacteria have many mechanisms to evade being killed by antibiotics, with antibiotic resistance being the most infamous. The rise of resistance endangers millions of lives worldwide. To make matters worse, the quick emergence of resistance cuts financial incentives to develop new, effective antibiotics. The golden age of antibiotics seems to fade, and modern medicine with it. Yet, not all is lost! Hope lies in the discovery of antimicrobials resilient against evasion – coupled with more sustainable use of existing antibiotics.

Your gut is home to a vast microbial ecosystem that is crucial for health. Just as we eat, so do these microbes, breaking down those components of our diet that our bodies cannot. Yet, no single microbe can do it all alone. Instead, they form a complex network that—much like a diverse society—is more than the sum of its parts. I will lead you through how unraveling the relationships between gut bacteria can help us understand the fate of what we eat, and how intervening in the microbiome might improve health and even treat disease.