: Mumbaikar Gautam Dantas has done it again. The former St Mary’s student, who went to the United States for research, has created the world’s first completely new biomolecule (protein), using a computer-based design. Dantas’ spectacular work for his PhD won him a prize for the best scientific paper of 2004.
Four years later in April 2008, his first paper from his post-doctoral work, describing the unexpected finding of bacteria that eat antibiotics, has been published in the highly-respected magazine, Science . The discovery, published in the latest edition of the journal, came about almost by accident.
A team, led by Harvard Medical School geneticist George Church, had a Department of Energy grant to develop ways to create biofuels from agriculture waste. Dantas was in the forefront of the researchers who discovered hundreds of germs in soil that literally gobble up antibiotics andare able to thrive with the potent drugs as their sole source of nutrition.
These bacteria outwit antibiotics in a disturbingly novel way. Would germs that sicken people develop the same ability?
The finding comes amid increasing concern that many infections could soon become untreatable, as more bacteria become immune to today’s antibiotics even as few new drugs are being discovered. But the medical impact of the new work isn’t yet clear. Germs in soil aren’t big human threats, and no human pathogen has been spotted with the same ability.
The next step would be to identify the actual genes that let these bacteria devour and degrade antibiotics and figure out if it really poses a threat.
Dantas, the son of Karl and Amla Dantas (nee Kothare) says: ‘‘I am happy that my work is path-breaking.’’ Says another Mumbai researcher Nikhil Dhurandhar (who discovered that it is a virus that makes people fat), associate professor, Infections and Obesity Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center: “Since the advent of antibiotics, there is a tussle between us and the microbes.
While we wish to kill harmful bacteria with antibiotics, bacteria seem to come up with ways to develop resistance to them, forcing us to discover newer antibiotics that can still do the job. Imagine a day when we are unable to kill infections with antibiotics! To stay one step ahead of harmful bacteria, it is essential to understand various ways in which they dodge
Courtesy:timesofindia.com
Complete artical HERE
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
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