4 ms·

This article essentially says that in the best-case we can only slow antibiotic resistance. Is there anyone working on things to actually render the bacteria le

This article essentially says that in the best-case we can only slow antibiotic resistance. Is there anyone working on things to actually render the bacteria less effective at survival (perhaps using the same evolutionary principles that got them resistent in the first place)?

ocschwar 9y ago
Antibiotic resistance imposes a metabolic cost on bacteria. Take away the antibiotic, and resistance slowly declines. 50 years from now, we'll have a global system that coordinates the rotation of antibiotics so we use them in lockstep.
- TTPrograms 9y ago
  > 50 years from now, we'll have a global system that coordinates the rotation of antibiotics so we use them in lockstep. That is really cool idea.
- danieltillett 9y ago
  People have tried this and it doesn't work. The problem is mobile genetic elements like plasmids and transposons. What happens is the antibiotic resistance genes cluster together and so the selection for one selects for all the others. Even if you go back to an antibiotic that hasn't been used for decades the resistance hangs around. Bacteria really are formable.
  - autokad 9y ago
    if they were easy to kill, life would have never formed / progressed in the first place =)
    - danieltillett 9y ago
      The speed of evolution is proportional to the population size - there are way more bacteria than non-bacterial life and they are way ahead of us :)