Molecular tweezers pick apart .
Researchers Raz Jelinek (left) and his student Ravit Malishev have developed molecular tweezers (not pictured) to take apart the defenses of drug-resistant bacteria
Dani Machlis/BGU 1/1
Researchers Raz Jelinek (left) and his student Ravit Malishev have developed molecular tweezers (not pictured) to take apart the defenses of drug-resistant bacteria
Dani Machlis/BGU
The rise of drug-resistant bacteria, which are superbugs that are evolving the ability to evade the defenses offered by our best medicines, is a growing threat to human health. Combating these dangers is going to take some inventive solutions, and researchers in Israel have demonstrated an example of this type of thinking with a set of molecular tweezers that can pick apart the protective film of bacteria, freeing the way for the human immune system to go to work.
Molecular tweezers take on antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Breakthrough technology allows immune system to prevent infection, presenting a better treatment option than antibiotics.
Prof. Raz Jelinek, left, and his PhD student Ravit Malishev. Photo by Dani Machlis/BGU
Scientists from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva, along with American and German colleagues, have developed “molecular tweezers” to destroy the biofilm that surrounds and protects antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the body.
Antibiotic resistance occurs when germs like bacteria or fungi develop the ability to defeat medicines designed to kill them. Infections caused by antibiotic-resistant germs are difficult, and sometimes even impossible, to treat.
May 18, 2021
The team, led by BGU’s Department of Chemistry Prof. Raz Jelinek, and postdoc in his lab Dr. RavitMalishev , tested their molecular tweezers on the Staphylococcus aureus (Staph) bacteria. Staph infections have an estimated mortality rate in the US of over 25%, and as much as 40% for drug-resistant strains. The researchers developed two specific tweezers that bind and either disrupt biofilm formation or break existing biofilms.
“Our discovery prevents infection without building up antibiotic resistance. As such, it might even be preferable to construct treatments based on molecular tweezers rather than antibiotics,” says Prof. Jelinek, who is also Ben-Gurion University’s Vice President of Research & Development and a member of the Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology. “Importantly, binding the tweezers to the biofilm disrupts its protective capabilities. In consequence, the bacterial pathogens become, on the one hand, much less virulent to
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria inside a biofilm (Dr Microbe via iStock by Getty Images)
Israeli scientists have developed tiny “tweezers” capable of breaking down defenses that bacteria build to survive the human immune system.
In a bid to stay alive and reproduce in humans, bacteria construct biofilms shields to protect themselves against the immune system that is programmed to try to destroy them.
Such protection helps many infection-causing bacteria survive. It’s also the mechanism that bacteria use to live in our mouths part of dental plaque is a biofilm that helps bacteria survive underneath despite our toothbrushing. Biofilms are also grown by bacteria in plants, animals and other environments.
Emory joins national Mellon Foundation research project to address racial reparations
Emory University will be part of a $5 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded to the University of Michigan’s Center for Social Solutions, led by former Emory Provost Earl Lewis, as part of the Foundation’s Just Futures initiative. “Crafting Democratic Futures: Situating Colleges and Universities in Community-based Reparations Solutions” emerges from the Center for Social Solutions’ focus on slavery and its aftermath, and is informed by three generations of humanistic scholarship and what that scholarship suggests for all seeking just futures. More information here.
The team of scholars will be led by historian Carol Anderson, Emory’s Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and department chair. The team also includes Emory College faculty members Vanessa Siddle Walker, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of African American Studies, and AAS assistant