As antibiotic resistance becomes an increasingly urgent public health challenge, Valeria Reyes Ruiz is hunting for new ways to halt deadly Staphylococcus aureus bacterial infections. Her approach: depriving bacteria of the key nutrients they need to survive and spread in the body. Reyes Ruiz will detail how staph bacteria respond to the mineral manganese, and then work out the mechanisms by which immune cells starve bacteria of manganese to fight back. Understanding that interplay may help identify antibiotic-free ways to treat dangerous infections.