The National Institutes of Health has given the Worcester (Mass.) Polytechnic Institute a $1.3 million grant to fund research on copper and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, according to a News Medical report.
P. aeruginosa commonly causes hospital-acquired infections, but copper has demonstrated toxicity to the Gram-negative bacteria's cells.
WPI researchers will use biochemical tools and genomic and proteomic data to develop a model of the copper distribution system in P. aeruginosa, according to the report.