Feature Health & Medicine

Live antibiotics use bacteria to kill bacteria

Prescribing a predator could be the answer to multidrug resistance

Bdellovibrio bacteria

BACTERIAL COMBATANTS Bdellovibrio bacteria (yellow) attack larger bacteria (blue), using the prey’s remains to replicate. Bdellovibrio microbes are a kind of living antibiotic.

STEPHAN CHRISTOPH SCHUSTER

By Elizabeth Eaton

- More than 2 years ago

The woman in her 70s was in trouble. What started as a broken leg led to an infection in her hip that hung on for two years and several hospital stays.