Antibiotic that kills pathogens like MRSA without resistance
http://www.kurzweilai.net/finally-an-antibiotic-that-kills-pathogens-like-mrsa-without-resistance
http://www.kurzweilai.net/forums/topic/historic-turning-point-fighting-disease
Damn. Is there anyone wandering this thread who knows more about pathology who can comment on whether this is significant or not?
Seems like a pretty big deal to me.
It’s hit national news pretty hard. This particular discovery (teicobaxin) is significant as taking a different approach to kill bacteria than current antibiotics, which means it would likely be decades before there are issues of antibiotic resistance. It’s not (as some articles have made it seem) completely immune to ever having resistance develop. Also, it has not been tested in humans yet, so there’s a chance it might not actually work out.
The other interesting thing is how they discovered it, using the natural environment to look at potential antibiotics that previously could not be investigated because they wouldn’t grow in a lab setting.
This is a pretty good article: http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/science/2015/01/07/northeastern-researchers-discover-new-antibiotic-maine-soil-sample/iZRrB4F0yzcQuV1LFeCiiK/story.html
There’s some definite sensationalism in almost everything I’ve read except the paper itself, and people are getting a few steps ahead of themselves. It’s got serious potential, though.
(Also, on a side note, I just started a neurobiology class today where the prof fit in multiple bashes against Kurzweil, the source of those articles from the OP.)
If there is a Nobel in it, you won’t see it for a few more years or decades. The committee will surely take plenty of time to review its merits. Of course, Peace prizes are another matter and are often awarded far too hastily. I think they should take the same conservative approach to Peace prizes as they do for the sciences.