Following a public vote, the 2014 Longitude Prize to develop an idea that will help solve one of the greatest issues of our time will go to a project working on antibiotic resistance. The focus of the £10m award will go to the best idea for a cheap, fast and accurate detector for bacteria and their associated antibiotic resistance mechanisms that could help better guide treatment.
Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most serious health threats to the global community. Microbes that are resistant to multiple classes of antibiotics are the cause of common infections including skin and soft tissue infections, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, diarrhoea and sexually transmitted infections.