Thursday, September 25, 2014

Battling Superbugs With Gene-Editing System

"Battling superbugs with gene-editing system":
MIT engineers have now turned a powerful new weapon on these superbugs. Using a gene-editing system that can disable any target gene, they have shown that they can selectively kill bacteria carrying harmful that confer or cause disease.

Led by Timothy Lu, an associate professor of biological engineering and electrical engineering and computer science, the researchers described their findings in the Sept. 21 issue of Nature Biotechnology. Last month, Lu's lab reported a different approach to combating resistant bacteria by identifying combinations of genes that work together to make bacteria more susceptible to .

Lu hopes that both technologies will lead to new drugs to help fight the growing crisis posed by drug-resistant bacteria...
I really hope this pans out!