Antibiotic-free treatment for infection? New technology with potential in the fight against antimicrobial resistance

New treatment under development by Professor Karine Auclair and Assistant Professor Andréanne Lupien could potentially treat intracellular infections without the need for traditional antibiotics. Supported by the McGill Innovation Fund (MIF) and the McGill Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Centre, the team hopes to bring this technology to the market. Although they were only used for the first time in 1910, antibiotics have become the foundation of modern medicine. In a world without antibiotics, a simple paper cut could lead to a deadly infection and infectious diseases were the leading cause of death. By some estimates, the invention of antibiotics have extended the average human lifespan by 23 years in the past century. But increasingly, microbes are resistant to antibiotics, a trend that is becoming one of the fastest growing health threats of the 21st century. Commonly referred to as “superbugs,” the rising rates of resistance combined with few new treatments in the research...