Northeastern researchers discover reason behind staph infection evasion — 3 points

A study published in the journal Nature Microbiology reveals why the bacterium behind staph infections evades antibiotics, as reported by Phys.org.

Kim Lewis, PhD, Boston-based Northeastern University Distinguished Professor and director of Northeastern's Antimicrobial Discovery Center, led the study.

Here are three points:

1. Researchers focused on a subpopulation of bacterial cells called persisters, which are living cells that exist in a dormant, sporelike state and are able to survive the onslaught of antibiotics, because antibiotics only attack actively functioning bacterial cells.

2. Dr. Lewis and researchers found nothing they or anyone else had learned from E. coli or other bacteria applied to staph, and that staph had a completely new mechanism for persister formation. Loss of energy shut the staph cells down.

3. Additional researchers from Northeastern University, as well as from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., contributed to the study.

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