What we fund
Our research
We fund and support the most promising health research wherever we discover great opportunities in areas that are underfunded.
Our research
Fighting the superbugs
We're facing up to the challenge of antimicrobial resistance and ensuring that we protect modern medicine for future generations.
Across hospitals and communities, infections are becoming harder to treat. Everyday illnesses are lingering, complicating recovery, and putting lives at risk. Antibiotics are losing their effectiveness as bacteria adapt and spread.
This is antimicrobial resistance (AMR): the rise of drug-resistant superbugs. It is accelerating at a pace we can’t afford to ignore. That’s why the Medical Research Foundation is investing in crucial research in this area.
Understanding antimicrobial resistance and the challenge of superbugs
Join us for our online Science Seminar about AMR on 29 April
Learn about antimicrobial resistance with Dr Wezi Sendama, who will explain how his lung immunity research could reduce reliance on antibiotics.
Register for the seminar - 29 April
What is AMR?
Learn more about antimicrobial resistance and the challenges it poses to the research community and the wider world.
Understanding AMR
Are you an AMR researcher?
We are inviting fellowship applications from early or mid-career researchers in the field of Antimicrobial Resistance research.
Find out about the funding
What we have already funded
Delve into existing research that we have already funded to combat the rise of superbugs.
Our researchThe challenge of antimicrobial resistance
Most of us take antibiotics for granted and trust that they will work when we need them - that our chest infection will be treated, that routine surgery is safe and that antibiotics will do what they’ve always done since being put to use in modern medicine.
But that could be about to change.
And for some, it's already happening.
Laila's story
“My infection was resistant to treatment. Life threatening sepsis set in. My temperature soared. My blood pressure plummeted, and my heart pounded frantically in my chest as it pumped the infection through my veins. The surgeon’s face was grave."
For Laila, the awful reality of antimicrobial resistance meant an emergency operation and delays to her critical, impending cancer surgery.
Laila collaborated with Story Bug, a Foundation-funded project, to share her story and experience of antimicrobial resistance.
"I’d had multiple courses of lifesaving antibiotics over the course of my cancer treatment. But this time was different. They didn’t work."
During her three-year intensive treatment for bowel cancer, 31-year-old Laila Hudson developed an antibiotic-resistant infection. Life threatening sepsis set in. Read Laila's story as she details her terrifying experience of dealing with a superbug.
Laila's story
Support us
Join us for our upcoming online Science Seminar about AMR on 29 April
Learn more about antimicrobial resistance with Dr Wezi Sendama from Newcastle University, as he discusses the challenge of anti-microbial resistance and how his research into ageing and lung immunity is aiming to ease reliance on antibiotics.
Register now
Be the first to hear about how we're fighting the superbugs
Join our list of email supporters and you'll be the first to hear about our research updates, including details of our newly funded work for AMR.
Antimicrobial resistance
Without urgent action, as many as 10 million people each year could die as a result of AMR. To stop the spread of drug-resistant illness and disease, a new approach is desperately needed.