Drug-resistant bacteria is rapidly outpacing the development of new drugs. A 2016 report, The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, estimates that globally 700,000 people die each year from drug-resistant bacterial infections. Part of the problem is that developing new drugs has become increasingly difficult. That’s why Andrew Roberts, a British bacterial scientist, is returning to a more primitive form of drug research— with a 21st century twist. Roberts started a crowdsourcing campaign to enlist people from all over the world to send him bacteria samples in the hopes of finding new antibiotics.

Authors: Maryn McKenna, Caitlin Cadieux, and Nicolas Pollock

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