IU researchers hope to battle antibiotic-resistant bacteria better

Last week in California, drug-resistant bacteria spread through UCLA hospital and national headlines after two patients infected with the superbug during endoscopic procedures died and 179 others were exposed.

“The problem is we need better ways to fight them, because antibiotics are kind of failing us,” said Yves Brun, a microbiologist and professor of biology at Indiana University. “Not because they’re not good, but because bacteria find, through mutations, ways to resist antibiotics.”

With the help of a $3.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Brun, chemist Michael VanNieuwenhze and a team of IU researchers are working to study how bacteria build their cell walls, and use this knowledge to assist in the creation of new, more effective antibiotics.

“We always have to be a step ahead,” Brun said. “You need to constantly do research in order to find ways to develop antibiotics.”

Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics over time and after increased exposure. The CDC cites high rates of unnecessary antibiotic prescription and antibiotic use in food animals as primary causes of increased illnesses and less effective drugs. Approximately half of all antibiotic prescriptions are either inappropriate to treat a patient’s illness or contain the incorrect dosage.

“It’s kind of like an arms race,” Brun said. “We make a new antibiotic, and as soon as we start using them, we will select for bacteria that are resistant to this antibiotic. We always have to be making new ones that bacteria have never seen before.”