BWB Antibiotic Resistance: The end of modern medicine? | Wellington

In ten years’ time, will antibiotics still work? Have we let bacteria get the upper hand in the evolutionary arms race?

In the 1920s the discovery of the antibiotic penicillin started a golden age of medicine. However, experts warn that the end of that age may be just a decade away. In this BWB Text, Veronika Meduna talks with microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles as she explores the looming crisis of antibiotic resistance and its threat to New Zealand. Wiles concludes that New Zealand must do more to protect the public from a future without antibiotics.

Dr Siouxsie Wiles is an award-winning scientist who has made a career of manipulating microbes. She and her team at the University of Auckland use glowing bacteria to understand how infectious microbes make us sick and to find new medicines. Siouxsie is an enthusiastic tweeter, blogger, artist, curator and media science commentator and has won numerous prizes, including the Prime Minister’s Science Media Communication Prize and the Royal Society of New Zealand Callaghan Medal. In 2016, Siouxsie was named a Blake Leader by the Sir Peter Blake Leadership Trust.

The event is 5.30pm for 6pm start.