Frozen for 5,000 years, this ice cave bacterium resists modern antibiotics

Frozen for 5,000 years, this ice cave bacterium resists modern antibiotics

Deep inside a Romanian ice cave, locked away in a 5,000-year-old layer of ice, scientists have uncovered a bacterium with a startling secret: it’s resistant to many modern antibiotics. Despite predating the antibiotic era, this cold-loving microbe carries more than 100 resistance-related genes and can survive drugs used today to treat serious infections like tuberculosis and UTIs.