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Researchers at the Centre for Molecular Cell Biology and Experimental and Applied Physics together with colleagues at the University of Edinburgh and Imperial College London have uncovered a new mechanism that helps bacteria survive antibiotic treatment. Published in Nature Communications, their research shows that RNA repair in E. coli not only enables survival of ribosome-targeting antibiotics but also creates differences in resistance between individual cells within a population. This discovery highlights the complexity of bacterial survival strategies and opens new avenues for tackling antibiotic resistance.

Hindley, H.J., Gong, Z., Moradian, S. et al. Heterogeneity in responses to ribosome-targeting antibiotics mediated by bacterial RNA repair. Nat Commun 16, 9620 (2025). www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64759-3.