New York Times: From a pile of dirt, hope for a powerful new antibiotic
The New York Times - 01/07/2015
New York Times: From a pile of dirt, hope for a powerful new antibiotic
An unusual method for producing antibiotics may help solve an urgent global problem: the rise in infections that resist treatment with commonly used drugs, and the lack of new antibiotics to replace ones that no longer work.
The method, which extracts drugs from bacteria that live in dirt, has yielded a powerful new antibiotic, researchers reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday. The new drug, teixobactin, was tested in mice and easily cured severe infections, with no side effects.