6 Summary

This week introduced some of the basic biology and chemistry that underpins antibiotic activity. You looked at the main modes of antibiotic action and learned why these drugs demonstrate selective toxicity.

You should now be able to:

• recognise different types of commonly used antibiotics
• recall the characteristic features of bacterial and human or animal cells
• explain why antibiotics have selective toxicity
• demonstrate how commonly used antibiotics affect bacterial growth
• summarise the main mechanisms by which antibiotics stop infections from spreading and kill bacteria.

Having explored different types of antibiotic in some detail, you should now be well prepared to move on to Week 3 which discusses antibiotic resistance mechanisms.

You can now go to Week 3.