Light-activated molecular machines are fast-acting broad-spectrum antibacterials that target the membrane.

The increasing occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the dwindling antibiotic research and development pipeline have created a pressing global health crisis. Here, we report the discovery of a distinctive antibacterial therapy that uses visible (405 nanometers) light-activated synthetic molecular machines (MMs) to kill Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, in minutes, vastly outpacing conventional antibiotics. MMs also rapidly eliminate persister cells and established bacterial biofilms. The antibacterial mode of action of MMs involves physical disruption of the membrane. In addition, by permeabilizing the membrane, MMs at sublethal doses potentiate the action of conventional antibiotics. Repeated exposure to antibacterial MMs is not accompanied by resistance development. Finally, therapeutic doses of MMs mitigate mortality associated with bacterial infection in an in vivo model of burn wound infection. Visible light-activated MMs represent an unconventional antibacterial mode of action by mechanical disruption at the molecular scale, not existent in nature and to which resistance development is unlikely.