The new antibiotic teixobactin brings in new promises and hopes to scientists who are searching for a way to treat chronic bacterial infections such as MRSA and tuberculosis. Its discovery began with NovioBiotic and the iChip, which is a modernistic method that enables uncultured bacteria to grow in their natural environment. Over the course of its lifetime, the NovioBiotic iChip has discovered 25 new antibiotics. The researchers at Northeastern University that discovered the antibiotic discovered the teixobactin compound while doing a routine screening using the NovioBiotic iChip to gain access to MRSA and testing the compound to find that MRSA did not portray any mutated versions of it. Teixobactin works by binding lipids utilized in the construction of the bacterium cell wall. It prevents the cell well from building up, making the bacteria weaker. With this innovation, the team aims to develop teixobactin into a drug and ultimately put a stop to chronic bacterial infections.
"This challenges the dogma that we've operated under that bacteria will always develop resistance. Well, maybe not in this case." - Professor Kim Lewis
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150108124854.htm
Written by: Josh Estores
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