Antimicrobial resistance: The greatest issue of our time?

The 2014 Longitude Prize, a £10 million fund dedicated to solving one of the greatest challenges of our time, was recently assigned to antibiotics. Why is this issue so significant, and what is the UK doing about it?

Antibiotics are one of the finest achievements of modern medicine, killing the bacteria and other microorganisms that fill our environment without harming us. Without them, people would routinely die of minor infections and procedures like surgery would be almost impossible – they are reckoned to add 20 years to a person’s life. Although the healing properties of certain moulds have been known for hundreds of years, it was British biologist Alexander Fleming who is generally credited with the discovery of the first modern antibiotic penicillin.

The problem with using a chemical weapon (medicine) against a biological enemy (bacteria) is that sooner or later the living system will adapt. Even if an antibiotic kills 99.99 % of all bacteria, the surviving 0.01 % will live to infect another day, and will pass on improved resistance to later generations through their genes. Today, mere decades after the use antibiotics became routine, resistance is rife and some strains are now immune to almost anything we might prescribe against them.

The UK has been working steadily to fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR), publishing a five-year strategy and funding relevant research in biosciences, medicine and healthcare. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh and the Wellcome Trust also recently called for an intergovernmental response, much like the one for climate change, given that the threat is so serious.

Enter the Longitude Prize. This was established back in the 1700s as a way to incentivise inventors to come up with a way to determine a ship’s longitude at sea. Today, if you can help us solve the issue of antimicrobial resistance – and, by extension, modern life – then you can claim your share of the £10 million prize fund. Submissions will open this autumn!