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How can we prevent the rise of resistance to antibiotics? This is the topic chosen by the public to be the challenge of Longitude Prize 2014. But why? The World Health Organisation estimates that antibiotics treatments add an average of 20 years to all of our lives. But in the 80 years since the discovery of penicillin, our overuse of antibiotics has put pressure on bacteria to evolve resistance, leading to the emergence of untreatable superbugs that threaten the basis of modern medicine.

Our expert (and entertaining) panel consists of:

Prof Clare Bryant- Professor of Innate Immunity
Prof Dame Athene Donald FRS -member of the Longitude Committee and Professor of Experimental Physics
Prof Andres Floto- Professor of Respiratory Biology
Dr Mark Holmes- Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Preventive Medicine

17 March 2015 Preventing The Rise Of Antibiotic Resistance

Vitamin D and light: a close relationship with a lot of controversy. Diet is insufficient in providing vitamin D; however, to make Vitamin D ourselves, we need sunlight, which tends to be in short supply in the UK. The EPIC-Norfolk study observed that participants who had a higher blood vitamin D concentration had a lower risk of developing lung disease, heart disease and fractures. Prof. Kay-Tee Khaw will discuss these findings and shed some light on the question: To D or not to D?

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Isaac Chia 1