[The Rockefeller University] Researchers Discover How to Turn One Germ’s Drug Resistance Into an Achilles’ Heel

1 June 2026

The Rockefeller University news release

Decades of reliance on the antibiotic rifampicin have fueled the rise of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. But as the bacterium mutates to protect itself from the drug, it also creates new weak points that other therapies could exploit. Now, a new study in Nature Microbiology shows that the most common rifampicin-resistance mutation slows bacterial RNA polymerase, creating vulnerabilities that future combination therapies may be able to target.

Read the full news release here.

Source: The Rockefeller University