Sabancı University Faculty Member Erdal Toprak and Harvard University Faculty Member Roy Kishony developed the “Morbidostat” – a device for real-time monitoring of the drug and antibiotic resistance stages of bacteria. The related article was published in Nature Genetics, one of the most distinguished periodicals in the field.
Assistant Professor Erdal Toprak from Sabancı University and Professor Roy Kishony of the Harvard Medical School developed the “Morbidostat” – a device used to gain further insight into the drug resistance stages of bacteria in clinical environments. The device allows real-time monitoring of the resistance stages. The related article, coauthored by Erdal Toprak and Roy Kishony, was published in the December 2011 issue of Nature Genetics, one of the most distinguished publications in the field. The article was widely acclaimed by the scientific community, and received numerous citations shortly after publication.
It is known that many antibiotics are rendered useless when bacteria gain resistance to their active agents. Although there is continuous research for new antibiotic actives to overcome this problem, natural and financial restrictions lead to very few new drugs developed in recent years. Currently, the most effective means of overcoming this problem is to increase the efficacy of existing drugs. Experts believe that this is tied to a molecular-level understanding of the process with which bacteria gain resistance.
Experiments by the team using the morbidostat revealed that the Escherichia coli bacteria, which have no drug resistances, became resistant by hundreds of times in only three weeks. Bacterial mutations and the order of these mutations were identified by whole genome sequencing. The study showed that bacteria could become much more resistant with the change of only 3 or 4 nucleotides, and that the mutations could occur only in a certain order. The discovery of the order in which bacteria must mutate to become drug-resistance offers insight into the strategies for the fight against drug-resistant bacteria.
Publications:
Science:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6049/1562.2.full.pdf
Nature:
http://nature-com.alltop.com/
http://www.natureasia.com/en/highlights/details.php?id=1583
The Scientist:
http://the-scientist.com/2011/12/18/the-evolution-of-drug-resistance/
PhysOrg
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-whole-genome-sequencing-evolution-drug-resistance.html
Nature Medicine