In 1946, American biologists Joshua Lederberg and Edward Tatum identified one cause of antibiotic resistance creating the foundation for modern genetic engineering. From Joshua Lederberg’s appreciation of the microbial world’s immense and fluid genetic resources came his recognition that humans, despite their dominion over “higher” forms of life, remain prey to microscopic predators.

After a few decades in which it appeared that human ingenuity, in the form of antibiotics, had outwitted the pathogens—but during which Lederberg and others warned of our distinct disadvantage in an escalating “arms race” with infectious microbes—antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains, or “superbugs,” have now become ubiquitous.

As Stanley Cohen of Stanford University observes in his contribution, “It seems quite remarkable that despite the enormous progress made in the treatment of infectious disease during Joshua Lederberg’s lifetime, the ominous microbial threat discussed by Lederberg on multiple occasions continues.”