About 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War, "If you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."¹

These wise words are still relevant regarding the approach to treating escalating battles with bacterial infections. We are in an "arms race" with bacteria that continue to evolve mechanisms for evading the antibiotic compounds used against them. The arms race continues as we learn about our enemy. Antibiotics have served medical science for about 70 years, but bacteria have an edge over humans in this arms race. Time and evolution have enabled a vast repertoire of microbial artillery in the form of antibiotics—which are used to combat against competing bacterial and fungal species—as well as antibiotic resistance genes to fight back.