antibiotics

Antibiotic resistance is a huge problem, not to mention an economic drain, for doctors and pharmaceutical makers trying to fight bacterial infections. Many antibiotics in our arsenal are becoming practically useless, as bacteria breed resistance to them. But researchers at Texas Tech University and Baylor University have developed a chemical additive that could make old drugs useful again.

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Bacterial infections are the number one killer in hospitals, and while most can be treated with antibiotics, there are many strains that have developed resistance to the drugs. New research from Tel Aviv University and Texas University suggests that bacteria can be outsmarted by turning their natural defense mechanisms against them, which can completely wipe them out without using antibiotics.

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Think that college lab work is dull and uninspiring? Student inventors claimed a $25,000 grand prize and other awards Wednesday night for creating antibacterial agents, "plastic steel," and a spherical robot that can climb stairs.

The winners were contestants in the 2008 Collegiate Inventors Competition, operated by the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation since 1990.

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Weve been talking a lot lately about bacterial resistance to drugs, most specifically as bacteria approach the limits of our treatments of last resort. As a consequence of the diminishing returns on traditional families of antibiotics, scientists have turned their focus to more novel approaches for combating infection. The work has been aimed at better understanding the interaction between our immune system and particular bacterial strains. Most recently, a team of researchers at the University of Washington have discovered just how the common staph infection resists our defenses.

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Humans are in an escalating battle with bacterial infections. Our last lines of antibiotic defense are increasingly becoming our only lines. Bacteria have demonstrated an adept ability to mutate and foil drugs at a pace which nearly bests our research and development efforts. However, a new class of molecules recently synthesized by researchers at Stanford University is
showing early promise in fighting off infection in a manner unlike any other.

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