Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by n1 on Wednesday August 10 2016, @03:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the cash-only dept.

Three young scientists thing they have a way to defeat antibiotic resistance:

Three college-age scientists think they know how to solve a huge problem facing medicine. They think they've found a way to overcome antibiotic resistance. Many of the most powerful antibiotics have lost their efficacy against dangerous bacteria, so finding new antibiotics is a priority. It's too soon to say for sure if the young researchers are right, but if gumption and enthusiasm count for anything, they stand a fighting chance.

[...] Last October, Stanford launched a competition for students interested in developing solutions for big problems in health care. Not just theoretical solutions, but practical, patentable solutions that could lead to real products. The three young scientists thought they had figured out a way to make a set of proteins that would kill antibiotic resistant bacteria. They convinced a jury of Stanford faculty, biotech types and investors that they were onto something, and got $10,000 to develop their idea.

[...] "The way that our proteins operate, that if the bacteria evolve resistance to them, actually the bacteria can no longer live anymore," says Rosenthal. "We target something that's essential to bacterial survival." Bacteria have managed to evolve a way around even the most sophisticated attempts to kill them, so I was curious to know more about how the proteins these young inventors say they've found worked. "We're not able to disclose, unfortunately," says Filsinger Interrante. It's their intellectual property, she explains, that they hope will attract investors. "We think that our protein has the potential to target very dangerous, multidrug-resistant bacteria."

Peer review, meet news review.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday August 10 2016, @09:22PM

    by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Wednesday August 10 2016, @09:22PM (#386392)

    The days of drugs being manufactured exclusively by big corps are coming to an end. New technologies will allow many drugs (not just meth) and biologics to be manufactured by one machine in the garage.

    Maybe on both of these statements, but the cynic in me knows that big corps tend to respond to either of these sort of threats by buying legislation putting a stop to them.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 11 2016, @02:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 11 2016, @02:15AM (#386482)

    vote with your feet.

    Governments only work if they have enough money and manpower to operate. Take away enough of either and they will collapse until their own weight.