Biodiversity

Benefiting from biodiversity

Biodiversity forms our ecosystems, regulates pollutants, and provides products spanning foods to antibiotics. Yet it is being lost at alarming rates. Our researchers are working to safeguard biodiversity, including as a source of next-generation therapies.

Focal areas

  • Microbes as sources of novel antimicrobials, biomaterials, and phage therapy
  • Insights and applications of comparative immunology
  • Securing microbial biodiversity to improve human, animal, and environmental health

Our work on the benefits of biodiversity contributes towards these United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

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Case study

Mining soil bacteria for novel therapies

Professor Max Cryle discovers and engineers new antibiotics using soil bacteria. He has resolved how various glycopeptide antibiotics are made by blending techniques such as synthetic chemistry, biocatalysis, and structural biology. In turn, he uses these insights to re-engineer helpful soil bacteria to create new antibiotics that can then be used against superbugs such as MRSA.

Key people

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