A BRAND new BBC drama about the threat of antibiotic resistance has been shaped thanks to the scientific expertise from the University of Warwick.
Airing on BBC Radio 4 in March, Resistance is a three-part story about an uncontrollable epidemic of a drug-resistant disease, which highlights many of the latest challenges the scientific and medical community is facing in real life.
Professor Dowson – who is part of the Warwick Antimicrobial Interdisciplinary Centre – played an integral part in the creation of this drama, which tells us how antibiotic resistance can affect all of us.
Starring Gina McKee, Resistance, written by renowned author Val McDermid, follows Zoe Meadows, a journalist at a music festival in the North East of England.
A mystery illness erupts at the festival and nobody’s quite sure how it’s travelling. As the drama unfolds, listeners will hear how the disease becomes an uncontrollable epidemic.
Coupling imaginative drama with scientific fact, Resistance is a warning that antibiotic resistance is a real threat to the safety of the world.
Professor Dowson and colleagues at Warwick are working to mitigate that threat, through the discovery of new effective antimicrobials, research into why certain bugs resist drugs, and the exploration of alternative antimicrobial therapies.
Professor Dowson said: “Communicating the seriousness of increasing antimicrobial resistance to a wide audience is of vital importance, and this radio drama is a powerful tool to help us do that.
“Bringing scientific research to a creative project like Resistance was a uniquely enjoyable and inspiring experience.
“The discovery of new antibiotics that are effective against the most resistant strains of bacteria is challenging.
“We need public support and advocacy to help change how we use our dwindling supply of current antibiotics (both in humans and animals) and all importantly in new models to fund the discovery of antibiotics that will sidestep resistance.”
Resistance will air on March 3, 10 and 17 March at 2.15pm on BBC Radio 4.
