Adam Roberts, a microbiologist at University College London, and his team of researchers are trying to develop new antibiotics to prevent resistance to antibiotics in patients. The bacteria that could fight off resistance breeding bacteria are derived from none other than human beard.

The idea flashed into Roberts’ mind when he saw an article by a TV journalist in Albuquerque, in which she described how she swabbed men's beards for a microbiologist to examine. The expert found enteric bacteria that are often found in the intestine. It’s been a year since Roberts has been requesting people from all around the world to pack and send their beard for testing antimicrobial properties. So far, he has collected 20 isolated promising strains that are capable of killing bacteria and yeast.

The finding is very important, according to Roberts, as the overuse and misuse of antibiotics has led disease-causing bacteria such as Staphylococcus and E. coli to cause resistance to most of the drugs we prescribe to treat them. Annually, 2 million infections and 23,000 deaths are experienced due to antibiotic resistant infection.

"Humans have used antibiotics pretty indiscriminately since we first discovered them, and we haven't really found that many, we're relying on the few we have found over and over again, and that's introduced a massive selection for resistant bacteria,” said Roberts.

The experiment showed that about 25% of beard isolates were able to destroy the strains which caused resistance. However, to come to the ultimate solution to the problem, the microbiologist and his team have to conduct more research into their discovery as the bacteria used in the test were found weak and to see if the bacteria will be effective against the multi-resistant infection.