Teixobactin

Teixobactin has been getting a lot of press since it’s debut in the most recent publication of Nature. And rightfully so: The authors claim that the mechanisms by which Teixobactin works will make it very hard for resistance development. Surely this discovery couldn’t have come at a better time, in a period where we have …

Antibiotic resistance genes in goat and lamb slaughterhouse surfaces

The spread of antibiotic resistance traits is an ongoing and important issue that is poorly studied. This PLoS One study by Lerma et al. is the first to use a culture independent approach to characterize antibiotic resistance traits in the total microbiota present in a goat and lamb slaughterhouse. Lerma et al. found that tetracycline resistance genes (tetA and tetB) and Sulfonamide …

Fish Want Probiotics Too

Researchers in Egypt did a fascinating study recently on probiotics for fish. They tested the effect of three different types of Psuedomonas fluorescens on two pathogens that affect tilapia in the Nile (P. angulliseptica and S. faecium). Their aim was to find a more eco-friendly way of controlling the pathogens in aquaculture compared to chemical antimicrobials. The probiotic was indeed …

Frightening Levels of Antibiotic Resistance and Capacity for Horizontal Gene Transfer Reported in a Wastewater Treatment Plant

Ah, the antibiotic resistance problem again.  Yes, we know that antibiotic overuse-both in humans and in agriculture, contributes.  This is not surprising.  But how does our built environment contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance genes?  The built environment is a perfect place for host and environmental microbes to collide and share gene, including antibiotic …

Are Faster Diagnostics (Finally) Here?

We are all quite familiar with the age-old problem: many times, the diagnosis of the microbial agent responsible for an infection takes days.  In the best of cases, a broad spectrum antibiotic is prescribed while doctors await lab results, which contributes to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.  In the worst cases, the patient does …

Bacteriophage Therapy – an Alternative to Antibiotics?

Bacteriophage therapy relies upon viruses of bacteria to treat bacterial infections. Prior to penicillin’s discovery, bacteriophage therapy was one of the major ways to treat bacterial infections. Virologist Felix D’Herelle pioneered this method in the late 1800’s in Paris and the former Soviet Union. Most of the literature on bacteriophage therapy is from Eastern European countries, …

Antibiotic Effectiveness in Space Project

It’s becoming increasingly well-established that microbes behave differently in microgravity than on Earth… that’s one of the justifications for our own Project MERCCURI.   Some previous work has focused on the ability of microbes to survive higher-than-normal levels of antibiotics when grown in space, though the mechanism for this is not at all understood. This article …