Germs are everywhere. Fortunately, most pose no risks to people. And those that do cause disease usually can be killed with antibiotic drugs. Sometimes, however, harmful bacteria evolve ways to “laugh at” antibiotics — survive as if the poisons were not even there. This so-called drug resistance make infections hard, if not impossible, to treat. How bacteria learn to resist killer drugs normally is invisible. But scientists have just unveiled a new tool that lets them watch it happen, right before their eyes.
“As someone who’s studied evolutionary biology for a long time, I think it has a real wow factor,” says Sam Brown. He is a microbiologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Brown applauds those who developed this new tool. Looking at it, he says, is like watching bacteria “climbing this impossible mountain of antibiotics.” …show more content…
To identify them, scientists must spy on how they grow, looking for ones that still spread even when an antibiotic drug is around.
For this type of study, scientists usually place bacteria in a liquid growth medium — food, essentially — within a bottle-like flask. Then they jiggle the flask. This makes the bacteria slosh around. Over time, they run into everything in the liquid. Those that adapt to any drugs will eventually grow more quickly, and eventually outnumber all other germs in the flask.
But that flask isn’t much like nature, notes Michael Baym. He is a microbiologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass. He and his team decided to instead spy on bacteria living on a flat surface. This, after all, would better resemble the sites where bacteria might encounter drugs, such as on hospital counters, door knobs and medical equipment.
On a flat surface, germs ‘see’ only whatever is right next to them, Baym explains. To adapt there, they don’t have to be the best in the whole community. They just have to be survive on whatever real estate is next
“As someone who’s studied evolutionary biology for a long time, I think it has a real wow factor,” says Sam Brown. He is a microbiologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Brown applauds those who developed this new tool. Looking at it, he says, is like watching bacteria “climbing this impossible mountain of antibiotics.” …show more content…
To identify them, scientists must spy on how they grow, looking for ones that still spread even when an antibiotic drug is around.
For this type of study, scientists usually place bacteria in a liquid growth medium — food, essentially — within a bottle-like flask. Then they jiggle the flask. This makes the bacteria slosh around. Over time, they run into everything in the liquid. Those that adapt to any drugs will eventually grow more quickly, and eventually outnumber all other germs in the flask.
But that flask isn’t much like nature, notes Michael Baym. He is a microbiologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass. He and his team decided to instead spy on bacteria living on a flat surface. This, after all, would better resemble the sites where bacteria might encounter drugs, such as on hospital counters, door knobs and medical equipment.
On a flat surface, germs ‘see’ only whatever is right next to them, Baym explains. To adapt there, they don’t have to be the best in the whole community. They just have to be survive on whatever real estate is next