Is it possible to breed a strain of bacteria in a laboratory setting so that it gains resistance to an antibiotic, replicating the kinds of resistance seen in wild, and has that been done?
Answer
Yes, many times.
For just one example, see this paper; you could also see this review for numerous examples.
These are examples of spontaneous mutations that lead to antibiotic resistance, so this is sort of an extreme version of evolution of antibiotic resistance. You could also say that antibiotic resistance "evolves" in terms of selection any time an experiment is done that uses a resistance gene to mark a subset of cells, which occurs on a daily basis in labs all over; fortunately these experiments use antibiotics that aren't used to treat patients.
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