Scientists at the University of East Anglia are getting closer to solving the problem of antibiotic resistance.

Infections with one of the most troublesome and least understood antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” are increasing at alarming rates, particularly in health-care settings.

There’s an urgent demand for new antimicrobial compounds that are effective against constantly emerging drug-resistant bacteria. Two robotic chemical-synthesizing machines, named Symphony X and Overture, have joined the search. Their specialty is creating custom nanoscale structures that mimic nature’s proven designs. They’re also fast, able to assemble dozens of compounds at a time.

Using a complex modeling program that helps analyze the physical dynamics of large, structurally complex protein molecules, a research team has made progress towards finding a weak spot in the architecture of a group of enzymes that are essential to antibiotic resistance in a number of bacteria.

Cancer is a notoriously evasive disease. It can adopt multiple identities, accumulating mutations or even gaining or losing whole chromosomes to create genetic variants of itself that are resistant to whatever drug is thrown its way.

Chemists develop new way to kill cancer cells resistant to the chemotherapy drug cisplatin.