Collateral damage

volume 32 number 1 january 2014 nature biotechnology Robert E.W. Hancock is at the Centre for Microbial Diseases and Immunity Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK. e-mail: bob@hancocklab.com as bacterial strains that are resistant to one or more drugs continue to proliferate. What’s more, relatively few novel antibiotics or strategies are under development or entering the clinic1,2. In a recent issue of Science Translational Medicine, Imamovic et al.3 outline an approach that would allow currently available antibiotics to be used more effectively, thereby slowing the spread of antibiotic resistance. The efficacy of antibiotics—the most successful medicines in human history—is steadily declining Collateral damage