Publication Date
9-1-2009
Abstract
In the course of human medicine, few discoveries have been as far-reaching and successful as the development of antibiotics in the 20th century. Introduced to mainstream medicine in the 1940s, these drugs have been utilized to vanquish a vast array of bacterial infections, relieving the suffering and saving the lives of millions of people. But antibiotics aren’t the surefire defense they used to be. A drop in research over the past several decades in developing new antibiotics, coupled with bacteria’s evolutionary drive to develop resistance, has caused the number of effective antibiotics to diminish, and with increasing speed. Christine Chow, Ph.D., professor of Chemistry in Wayne State’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is leading a research team in developing a novel strategy to get an edge over bacteria’s relentlessly evolving defense mechanisms. “Resistance is a huge problem,” Dr. Chow said. “There are now strains of bacteria that are completely resistant to every known drug. We want to create something new that isn’t as easy for bacteria to resist.”
Recommended Citation
Oprean, Amy
(2009)
"Counter Attack: Developing New Weapons in the Battle Against Antibiotic Resistance,"
New Science: Vol. 17:
Iss.
1, Article 8.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/newscience/vol17/iss1/8