July 7, 2021

'Fortunate accident' may yield immunity weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria

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2021-07-08 03:30:04

July 7, 2021

by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

In what turned out to be one of the most important accidents of all time, Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming returned to his laboratory after a vacation in 1928 to find a clear zone surrounding a piece of mold that had infiltrated a petri dish full of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), a common skin bacterium he was growing.

That region of no bacterial growth was the unplanned birth of a medical miracle, penicillin, and would lead to the era of antibiotics. Now, in a paper published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have announced another accidentally discovered, potentially game-changing treatment—one that may provide an alternative immune-based solution to the danger of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

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