New antibacterial drugs
Resistance to antibiotics is soaring, meaning that new antibacterial compounds – to which bacteria are not yet resistant – are urgently needed. A team led by Dr Gabriel Waksman at the Institute of Structural Molecular Biology at University College London and Birkbeck College has found a new way to combat infectious bacterial diseases. Their work focuses on pili – hairlike structures found on the surface of many bacteria that help them to attach to the surface of host cells they infect. Dr Waksman and colleagues have identified a step in the formation of pili and have characterised a compound that can block this step, rendering a bacterium harmless.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 2006; 103: 17897-17902