Researchers throughout the world are working at a frenetic pace to win the war against antibiotic resistance. Without effective antibiotics or other ways of neutralizing or killing pathogenic bacteria, we face the risk of dying of common infections. Modern medical care, including cancer treatment, transplants and other surgery, is also entirely dependent on the availability of antibiotics that work.

Meet some of the people in Sweden on the front line of the battle: Dan Andersson at Uppsala University, who is developing new, faster and more accurate analytical methods; researchers at Umeå University, who are trying to neutralize bacteria in various ways and find new approaches; Felipe Cava, who is studying the cell walls of bacteria; Maria Fällman, who is studying bacterial defense mechanisms; Fredrik Almqvist, Jörgen Johansson and Elisabet Sauer Eriksson, who want to create new molecules to act as homing missiles; and Birgitta Henriques Normark at Karolinska Institutet, who is searching for substances that can be used to develop new antibiotics.