University of Warwick scientists have discovered how a pneumonia-causing bacterium became resistant to penicillin, in research that could restore penicillin’s full antibiotic effect and help in designing drugs to fight MRSA (an antibiotic-resistant superbug bacterium).

By replicating the activity of the bacterial enzyme MurM–an enzyme associated with strength of the bacteria’s cell wall–in the lab, the scientists found out how the bacteria deployed MurM to neutralize penicillin.