Accelerating antimicrobial development has a very high priority since antimicrobial resistance rapidly increases, with large numbers of annual deaths projected in 2050. The urgency to tackle this emergent societal concern is widely acknowledged. In the past 5-10 years, our research group focused on the occurrence, fate and proliferation of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes in the environment. We found the high occurrence of antibiotics and ARGs in the Haihe River, China which is closely related to the over usage of antibiotics in animal livestock. In addition to the stress of antibiotics, the multidrug-resistant conjugative plasmid in Haihe River were further confirmed to contribute to the dissemination and propagation of ARGs in Haihe River. We characterized the New Delhi metallo -β- lactamase (NDM-1) gene and its host bacteria the “superbug” in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). In addition to antibiotics, we also found other chemicals such as liquid irons (ILs) and heavy metals also have the ability to enhance the proliferation and replication of ARGs among environmental bacteria. For our future research direction, we take great interest on the colonization and dissemination of antibiotic resistance in human gut microbiota under the selective pressure of antibiotics and other environmental pollutants. We also pay much more attention on the interaction between the gut microbiota and host immunity under stress of antibiotics and other environmental pollutants as well.