The talk explains how drug discovery struggles with the enormous size of chemical space, where only a few molecules become effective medicines. Using miniaturized chemical libraries and off-rate screening, the researcher accelerates structure–activity relationships (SAR) mapping without purification. This approach has already produced promising breast-cancer drug candidates and could dramatically reduce drug-development costs.

This research searches for new antibiotics in deep-sea sponge bacteria that have evolved for 580 million years to defend their hosts. By growing these never-before-seen microbes and testing them against superbugs like MRSA, the project aims to discover urgently needed antibiotics to combat rising antimicrobial resistance.