Why are bacteria evolving faster than our antibiotics?

Antimicrobial resistance represents one of the most complex challenges at the intersection of microbiology, chemistry, and medicine. As bacteria rapidly evolve mechanisms to evade antibiotics, the pipeline for new anti-infective drugs struggles to keep pace.

In this episode, our guest Micha, who is a PhD candidate in pharmaceutical science and part of the FWF-funded doc:fund Anti-Infectives Drug Discovery (AIDD) project team at the University of Vienna, takes a closer look specifically at Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a highly adaptable and resistant bacterium that exemplifies the difficulty of treating modern infections. We explore how resistance emerges, what multidrug resistance means at molecular level, and why features such as low membrane permeability, efflux pumps, and biofilm formation lead to frequent treatment failure.

Additionally, we address the realities of novel anti-infective drug discovery such as why selectivity and toxicity are major hurdles, how permeability limits compound effectiveness, and why many drug candidates fail long before reaching patients.

Beyond the science, the episode also highlights why early exposure to drug discovery matters for students and how creative, resilient thinking is essential for tackling antimicrobial resistance.