Fluorescent Drugs for Difficult Bugs: Engineering Fluorescent Antibiotics to Track Antibiotic Uptake and Resistance in Chronic Bacterial Infections.

One of the greatest biomedical challenges is overcoming difficult-to-treat chronic infections while minimising and improving antibiotic usage. This extends to improving drug delivery and therapeutics for biofilms. The discovery of biofilm nutrient transport channels changed our understanding of how biofilms acquire external resources. Meanwhile, we developed a streamlined manufacturing method for bespoke fluorescent drug labelling. Our collaboration maximises our expertise by producing fluorescent antibiotics, tracking their uptake through biofilm channels, quantifying their dispersion, and measuring their efficacy.

This research presents a step change in measuring antibiotic activity and will provide evidence of channel-mediated drug uptake. This research informs better use of antibiotics to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR), has multiple beneficiaries owing to the new methods and understanding of drug uptake, and maximises impact by informing the development of channel-targeting antibiotic delivery strategies for wound healing.