Driving to Safety: CRISPR-Based Genetic Approaches to Reducing Antibiotic Resistance

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has reached critical levels, skyrocketing in hospitals and the environment and posing a major threat to global public health. The complex and challenging problem of reducing antibiotic resistance (AR) requires a network of both societal and science-based solutions to preserve the most lifesaving pharmaceutical intervention known to medicine. In addition to developing new classes of antibiotics, it is essential to safeguard the clinical efficacy of existing drugs. In this review, we examine the potential application of novel CRISPR-based genetic approaches to reducing AR in both environmental and clinical settings and prolonging the utility of vital antibiotics.