Find out more about this fully funded PhD studentship opportunity.

The ability of bacteria such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli to circumvent antimicrobial chemotherapy has become a global public health crisis. The high prevalence of β-lactamase enzymes...

ABSTRACTWe evaluated the in vitro activity of aztreonam-nacubactam (ATM-NAC) and cefepime-nacubactam (FEP-NAC) against 53 clinical isolates of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia from blood cultures. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were determined via broth microdilution. While ATM-NAC showed more significant MIC reduction, FEP-NAC also remarkably decreased MICs, despite cefepime being a substrate for L1 β-lactamase. These findings suggest the potential of β-lactam–NAC combinations as promising alternatives, warranting further in vivo studies to confirm clinical applicability.

Communications Chemistry, Published online: 01 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s42004-025-01801-xClass-A β-lactamases can render antibiotics ineffective through hydrolysis, but the associated enzyme-antibiotic complexes remain largely underexplored at room temperatures. Here, the authors use RT serial synchrotron crystallography to report acyl-enzyme intermediates of the catalytically impaired β-lactamase CTX-M-14 mutant (E166A) from Klebsiella pneumoniae, and show that different isoxazolyl-penicillins adopt different conformations at room temperature.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health threat, yet, despite this, antibiotic drug discovery has stagnated. Most compounds entering the clinic represent already discovered classes, to which ...

Lars Stevens-Cullinane works in a dark room. But he's not processing negatives and printing photographs on light-sensitive paper; he's testing whether brief flashes of light can make drug-resistant ba...