Abstract:

Antibiotics have been widely available for less than a century, during which time they’ve revolutionised medicine and had profound impacts on the rest of society. Now, rising levels of antibiotic resistance are an urgent global threat and we can’t develop new ones fast enough. How did we get here and what might happen next? I’ll give an overview of the history of antibiotics - from their production by microbes to their deployment by humans - with examples of how their development and the rise of resistance is always linked to political, economic and social factors. 

About our speaker:

Dr Liam Shaw is a computational biologist and ERC starting grant awardee based at the University of Bristol. His research focuses on the evolution of plasmids and the spread of AMR. He also writes about science for a general audience for publications including the London Review of Books, with his first book Dangerous Miracle (2025) selected as a Sunday Times Book of the Year and a Radio 4 Book of the Week.