Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Lifeline: a musical about antimicrobial resistance that raises awareness and inspires action

Nature Medicine volume 31, pages 1728–1729 (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

This article has been updated

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

“Future generations must take on this responsibility to protect antibiotics at all costs. Before it is too late”. These are the words of Alexander Fleming’s character in the 2024 version of the musical Lifeline.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global crisis. The bleak statistics that estimated 4.71 million deaths associated with AMR worldwide in 20211 require shifts in attitudes and behaviors towards antibiotics that can be challenging to implement. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently published a people-centered approach to addressing AMR with a key foundational step of effective governance, awareness and education within the healthcare sector and the general public2. Here we show that a strategy to support this is by using creative arts, storytelling and the generation of emotional responses to promote behavioral change3.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Lifeline, the musical.

Andrew Patino.

Change history

  • 29 May 2025

    In the version of the article initially published, the third affiliation read “Charades Theatre Company, St Helens, Merseyside, UK” and has now been corrected to “Charades Theatre Company, St Helens, Edinburgh, UK” in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

References

  1. GBD 2021 Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators. Lancet 404, 1199–1226 (2024).

  2. World Health Organization. https://go.nature.com/3GUexM0 (2023).

  3. Dawes, R. M. J. Econ. Behav. 39, 29–40 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Hall, J. et al. PLoS ONE 15, e0240471 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Miller, M. J. JAMA 329, 1719–1721 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. AMR Industry Alliance. https://go.nature.com/3YHdFQM (2024).

  7. McDermid, V. Resistance, BBC Radio 4 full-cast drama (BBC, 2017).

  8. Ahmed, R. et al. J. Hosp. Infect. 104, 193–197 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Lecky, D. M., Hawking, M. K., Verlander, N. Q. & McNulty, C. A. PLoS ONE 9, e104556 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Rees-Roberts, D. & Cooke, P. Catch (Borderpoint Films, 2016).

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the volunteer scientists and healthcare professionals who performed in the show and the staff of Charades Theatre. The British Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy has provided integral support throughout the history of the AMR musical project, and the UK Special Envoy on AMR has been a stalwart champion. Additional funding has been provided by grants and charitable donations from numerous organizations and private individuals. A full list of historical supporters is available on request. Disclaimer: the views expressed by the authors do not necessarily represent the views of the US CDC.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jaime Garcia-Iglesias, Katharine Relph.

  2. These authors jointly supervised this work: CarriAyne Jones, Meghan Perry.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Jaime Garcia-Iglesias

  2. Clinical Infection Research Group, NHS Lothian, Edinburgh, UK

    Katharine Relph & Meghan Perry

  3. Charades Theatre Company, St Helens, Edinburgh, UK

    Robin Hiley, Jess Conway & Graham Richardson

  4. Department for Business and Trade, UK Government, London, UK

    Mary Stahl

  5. Department of Health and Social Care, UK Government, London, UK

    Claire Oxlade

  6. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Rebecca Murphy-Hoefer

  7. Hearts & Minds, Task Force for Global Health, Decatur, GA, USA

    CarriAyne Jones

  8. UK Science and Innovation Network, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Government, London, UK

    CarriAyne Jones

  9. Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Meghan Perry

Authors
  1. Jaime Garcia-Iglesias
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Katharine Relph
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Robin Hiley
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jess Conway
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Graham Richardson
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Mary Stahl
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Claire Oxlade
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Rebecca Murphy-Hoefer
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  9. CarriAyne Jones
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Meghan Perry
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Meghan Perry.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

R.H., J.C. and G.R. are employees of the UK registered charity, Charades Theatre Company. All other authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Garcia-Iglesias, J., Relph, K., Hiley, R. et al. Lifeline: a musical about antimicrobial resistance that raises awareness and inspires action. Nat Med 31, 1728–1729 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-03736-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-03736-1

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing