By definition, antibiotics kill bacteria. Nevertheless, TU Delft researchers have succeeded in engineering bacteria to produce promising amounts of a simple carbapenem antibiotic. Carbapenem antibiotics are effective against many bacteria and are usually only used when other antibiotics fail. They are currently only produced synthetically – an expensive process that also leads to chemical waste. This research suggests that by using bacteria as ‘living factories’, carbapenems might also be produced biologically. read more