Monday, April 24, 2017

Fighting Antibiotic Resistance with CRISPR



          Researchers out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison are working on a novel way to solve the growing danger of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Their work is focused on one of the most prominent and dangerous of these bacteria, Clostridium difficile. Due to the overuse and over prescription of antibiotics this strand of bacteria, along with others, have gained resistances to nearly all available treatment drugs. The team is attempting to combat this resistance through the use of a probiotic infused with bacteriophages carrying a variant of the CRISPR system. The probiotics would protect the bacteriophages which would ultimately emerge and target the Clostridium difficile within the gut of the patient. The injected CRISPR complex would then target the bacteria's DNA, promoting cell death. This research adds yet another potential life saving use of CRISPR to a list that has been growing steadily since its discovery.

1 comment:

  1. I think this is a great discovery. Using this research and CRISPR system, maybe we can start to reduce staph infections like MRSA in hospitals.

    ReplyDelete