Superbugs are antibiotic-resistant bacteria and they've been on the rise ever since antibiotics were first introduced eighty years ago. Matthew Coleman, a senior scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, says one reason for this is the overprescribing of antibiotics has allowed pathogens to develop immunities against them.

"It’s a real problem because a lot of bacteria have come up with mechanisms in which they can overcome the antibiotic so they don’t die; they end up living and causing even more problems because in the end, they can actually develop a resistance to that antibiotic."

Coleman is part of a research team at the Livermore Lab that patented a technique that essentially reverses this trend by developing novel antibiotics that effectively kill superbugs.

"This is an enzyme that comes in and just removes and strips away the cell wall, making it impossible for the cells to survive. So, this is a unique mechanism at which to approach antimicrobials."