The Atlantic: A new drug in the age of antibiotic resistance In the U.S. alone, antibiotic-resistant bacteria infect more than two million people each year, killing around 23,000 of them. Meanwhile, scientists are struggling with a losing race against the clock, as bacteria evolve to evade our drugs faster than we can make new ones. […]

Today’s research offers a one-two punch in the search for new antibiotics: a different way of finding them and the discovery of one: Teixobactin, that makes antibiotic resistance unlikely. “My guess is that if resistance is going to develop against Teixobactin, it will take more than 30 years for that to occur,” said Kim Lewis, […]

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 […]

Meditation can win the Super Bowl, help people quit smoking and even change the brain — just ask Northeastern University student Lars King, who has been practicing meditation for roughly three years and now wants to help others “become happier, calmer and more productive.” King kicked off the new year by publicly launching a startup […]

With bacteria evolving to resist antibiotics faster than scientists can concoct new drugs, the fight against resistant infections in hospitals and food supplies is a tough battle to win. But a newly discovered antibiotic may prove irresistible to bacteria. Every time an antibiotic is used, bacteria are getting to know it a little better. And […]

Here’s a rare treat: potential good news about antibiotic resistance. For years, the drumbeat of warnings has grown increasingly dire: The bugs are evolving more and more resistance to our biggest antibiotic guns. Some bacteria — strains of tuberculosis and gonorrhea among them — have even become resistant to all antibiotics. Remember the bad old […]

Boston Globe: Northeastern researchers discover new antibiotic in a Maine soil sample From a soil sample harvested in a grassy meadow in Maine, a team led by a Northeastern University researcher has discovered a completely novel antibiotic. The new antibiotic, teixobactin, kills an array of pathogens, and in early laboratory tests bacteria did not develop […]

The decades-long drought in antibiotic discovery could be over after a breakthrough by US scientists. Their novel method for growing bacteria has yielded 25 new antibiotics, with one deemed “very promising”. The last new class of antibiotics to make it to clinic was discovered nearly three decades ago. The study, in the journal Nature, has […]

Wall Street Journal: Scientists discover potent antibiotic, a potential weapon against a range of diseases Scientists have discovered a powerful new antibiotic they say can kill an array of germs without the bugs easily becoming resistant to it, a potential weapon against a range of diseases. The discovery is a rare—and much-needed—breakthrough in the quest […]

Using soil from a grassy field in Maine and a miniaturized diffusion chamber, scientists have cultivated a microbe that could help tame the spread of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. When tricked into growing in a lab, the microbe makes a compound that kills strains of tuberculosis, MRSA and other deadly pathogens that are immune to even the […]

Scientists say they have discovered a natural compound from bacteria that may prove to be a potent new antibiotic. This news comes at a time when many current antibiotics are losing their oomph — germs become resistant to them. The new compound is especially intriguing because it appears that it might not lose its germ-killing […]

The United States v. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev promises to be the “Trial of the Century” (or at least the century up to this point). Eyes of the nation are focused on the Moakley Federal Courthouse in South Boston to see what the fate of the accused marathon bomber will be. Of course, those who will be […]