Keeping wounds clean and infection free has challenged people for thousands of years.
Tolerant bacteria are dormant until an antibiotic threat has passed, then reemerge to conduct business as usual.
Christoph Burgstedt/Science Photo Library via Getty Images
Antibiotic resistance has contributed to millions of deaths worldwide. Research suggests that any bacteria can develop antibiotic tolerance, and possibly resistance, when pushed to their limits.
Bacteria can become more deadly and antibiotic-resilient in space. And while more research is needed to figure out how severe the risks are, they could be catastrophic.
An artist depiction of a biofilm harboring antibiotic-resistant rod-shaped and spherical bacteria.
Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock.com
Smooth surfaces often provide nooks and crannies for bacteria to hold onto and create a colony. New research with nanoparticles is revealing the secrets of surfaces that prevent bacterial attachment.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria inside a biofilm.
Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock.com
Triclosan, an ingredient in soap and many household cleansers, has gained a bad reputation. A recent study looking for a way to boost an antibiotic, however, found that tricloscan did a great job.
Do we contain the most elaborate set of instructions?
Genome image via www.shutterstock.com.
Poor testing methods and antibiotic use by GPs and urologists has left thousands of women with crippling infections.
Illustration of pressure sensing bacteria in soils from the ‘Computational Colloids Project’.
Carolina Ramirez-Figuroa, Luis Hernan and Martyn Dade-Robertson
Karin Sauer, Binghamton University, State University of New York
The vast majority of the bacteria that surround us are not free-floating but prefer to band together in cooperative communities called biofilms. How do biofilms form and cooperate?