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I'm
a firm believer in the old adage "God made dirt, dirt don't hurt," and it turns
out that dirt might soon be saving lives.
Image Credit
A
novel
microfluidic device is used to grow soil bacteria
by researchers in Boston and Bonn, Germany. The researchers say they have
identified a new type of antibiotic that kills the bacteria that cause
pneumonia, staph, and blood infections. Backyard dirt might have yielded the
most powerful antibiotic discovered in decades.
This
is a timely discovery. Last year the World Health Organization predicted that a
"discovery void" for new antibiotics could lead to an era in which minor
injuries and common infections become deadly again.
The
antibiotic, named teixobactin, has yet to be tested in people, but it cured
mice of pneumonia, staph, and blood infections. It was discovered using a new
technology for soil prospecting that was developed by a biologist at
Northeastern University in Boston, which used a two-inch-long microfluidic chip
that acts as a portable diffusion chamber.
The
research team diluted dirt made mud to capture a single soil microbe in
each of 306 tiny holes on the chip's surface. The bacteria was put in a tub of
dirt and therefore "tricked" into growing colonies robust enough to be
transferred to a petri dish. From there they were tested to see if they
produced antibiotics.
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Re: Dirt to the Rescue
