FEBRUARY 10, 2025 — Undergraduates at UTSA are tackling the growing antibiotic resistance crisis as part of a microbiology course studying soil samples.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes antimicrobial resistance as “one of the world’s most urgent public health problems.” It occurs as pathogens develop defense mechanisms against common antibiotic medications.
According to the World Health Organization, the process is driven by misuse and overuse of antibiotic drugs. Meanwhile, the development of new, more effective antibiotics has not kept pace with rising resistance levels, leaving a growing number of bacterial infections untreatable.
“Over 60% of clinically used antibiotics come from soil bacteria, but as soil erodes, so does the opportunity to discover new antibiotics.”
