Cathy Holding(cathyholding@aol.com) | Aug 12, 2004 | 3 min read
Researchers report in two separate papers in Science this week on novel methods used by bacteria to avoid being killed by antibiotics. In one study, scientists at the Rockefeller University report that the bacterial cells known as persisters, which tolerate but do not become resistant to antibiotics, preexist in a population and that their random switching between normal and slow-growing persister states enables them to escape antibiotic killing. And in an accompanying paper, Stanford University