New class of antibiotic discovered in soil sample

The rise of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens has spurred scientists to search far and wide for new drugs. And while many antimicrobial molecules have been discovered in recent years, it’s rare to find antimicrobials that have entirely new modes of action. Now, scientists have discovered a new antibiotic —a lasso peptide called lariocidin—and it has a distinct mode of action that makes it the first of an entirely new class of antibiotic compound ( Nature 2025, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08723-7) Gerry Wright, a biochemist at McMaster University who led the research, says lariocidin was found in a bacteria called Paenibacillus that was “cultivated from a soil sample that we obtained here in Hamilton from my technician’s backyard.” He says that to find new drugs to combat growing antimicrobial resistance, scientists must “look to more unusual or overlooked sources of antibiotics.” So the team grew the bacteria found in that soil sample for an entire