University Physics Prof. John Bushweller recently took a significant step in his research seeking to make antibiotics more effective. Through his work, funded by the National Institutes of Health, Bushweller has been able to obtain a magnified view of protein structures that could be used to produce more successful antibiotics.
Better antibiotics are needed because bacteria have grown increasingly resistant to available medications, Vanderbilt University Biochemistry Prof. Charles Sanders said.
“The problem is that most of the traditional antibiotics don’t work anymore because bacteria has become immune to them,” Sanders said. “In the old days if you had an ear infection, you could just take an antibiotic, but now, the drugs don’t work anymore.”
Bushweller said antibiotics are designed to affect a specific target, but over time bacteria have become immune to them, leaving people vulnerable to illnesses.
To address this problem, Sanders said, Bushweller has been able to use complicated technology to take a very detailed picture of a particular protein structure found in bacteria that, if terminated, could kill the bacteria.
This is significant because “it allows you then to see what the protein looks like, and it turns out that this particular protein would be a good target for new antibiotic drugs,” Sanders said, comparing the process before this breakthrough to trying to fix a car without looking under the hood.
The next step in the experiment will be to develop a small molecule that will stop the protein from functioning.
“If you can kill the protein, you may be able to kill the entire cell, which is what you want the antibiotic to do,” Sanders said.
Bushweller said it is important for the biomedical community to get ahead of this growing problem.
“There’s an emerging sense in the biomedical community that we could reach a crisis point where there are going to be types of bacteria that will resist all the antibiotics that are currently available,” Bushweller said. “So if we don’t get ahead of this, we will face serious problems.”
Sanders said if a patient were to fall ill as a result of this type of adapting bacteria, he or she would face serious medical trouble because of these ineffective antibiotics.
“What we would like to achieve is to develop compounds that could make it to clinics to be used as treatments for bacterial infections,” Bushweller said. “It is a very long road, but that is ultimately our goal.”
Read More
Winsome Earle-Sears talks higher education in first U.Va. event of the campaign
By Ford McCracken | YesterdayA Jamaican immigrant and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Earle-Sears is the first female lieutenant governor of Virginia,
U.Va.'s Earth Day Eco-Fair 2025 spotlights sustainability advocacy
By Leigh Bailey | YesterdayStudents from Contracted Independent Organizations and University Office of Sustainability leadership programs each shared their unique perspectives about sustainability advocacy on Grounds.
Student Council votes to relocate Hereford orchard and basketball hoop
By Lauren Seeliger | YesterdayStudent Council passed a resolution Tuesday to relocate the orchard and basketball hoop of Hereford Residential College due to construction in the surrounding area.
