Anna Dumitriu worked with Kevin Cole & Dr John Paul (PHE/Modernising Medical Microbiology), Professor Martin Llewellyn, Dr Daire Cantillon, Dr James Price, and Dr Leena Al-Hassan (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) and Dr Nicola Fawcett (University of Oxford/Modernising Medical Microbiology) to create a method to safely display a collection of ‘superbugs’ commissioned for The Science Museum London’s major exhibition Superbugs: The Fight for Our Lives. The exhibition ran from 9th November 2017 to 7th April 2019 and was viewed by millions of visitors.
The display includes fully killed specimens of MRSA, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Acinetobacter baumanii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecalis, Enterobacter cloacae, & Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Antibiotics have enabled us to combat diseases that were once untreatable. But bacteria have fought back, evolving into superbugs resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics. Our new exhibition explores how society is responding to the enormous challenge of antibiotic resistance, featuring scientific research from across the globe and the personal stories of those waging war on the superbugs” (Science Museum).
Reviews
The show has been reviewed by Claudio Nunes-Alves in “Educated Microbes” on nature microbiology, November 2017 (UK/International).
The project was featured by Susan Fourtané in “Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs Are Winning the Fight, How Can Science Fight Back?” on Interesting Engineering, March 2019 (International).