FLICKR, NIAIDNortheastern University’s Kim Lewis and his colleagues have eradicated biofilm infections in vitro and in a mouse model with ADEP4—a derivative of the drug acyldepsipeptide—and showed that the compound activates a protease in persistent bacteria that causes them to self-digest. The team’s work was appeared in Nature this week (November 13).
“From a treatment perspective or a translational research perspective, [this study is] probably one of the most profoundly important advances that I’ve seen in the field for more than a decade,” Drexel University College of Medicine’s Garth Ehrlich, who did not participate in the research, told The Scientist. “This is really transformative.”
Daniel Wozniak from Ohio State University, who was also not involved in the work, echoed these sentiments. He said the work represents an “important advance in therapeutics against persistent infections.”
WIKIMEDIA, MARTIN MECNAROWSKIOn the basis of sequence data from dozens of dogs and wolves, including 18 ancient fossils, researchers at the University of Turku in Finland propose that domestic dogs evolved from a group of wolves that interacted with European hunter-gatherers between 18,800 and 32,100 years ago. Their work was published in Science this week (November 14).
The new analysis builds on two previous origin stories—one suggesting domesticated dogs emerged around 10,000 years ago during ...
