We still do not understand exactly how antibiotics kill bacteria. However, this understanding is necessary if we want to develop new antibiotics. And that is precisely what is urgently needed, because bacteria are currently showing more and more resistance to existing antibiotics. Therefore, researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn used high-performance microscopes to observe the effect of different antibiotics on the cell division of Staphylococcus aureus. They found that the biosynthesis of peptidoglycan, core component of the bacterial cell wall, is the driving force during the entire process of cell division. In addition, they clarified how exactly different antibiotics block cell division within a few minutes. The results have now been published in the journal Science Advances.