Petra Levin, professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, was recently awarded a $2 million grant to identify and characterize the molecular circuits that coordinate or limit the growth and reproduction of bacteria.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced Feb. 15 that Timothy A. Wencewicz, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been awarded a 2018 Sloan Research Fellowship. He is among 126 outstanding U.S. and Canadian researchers selected as fellowship recipients this year.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria most often are associated with hospitals and other health-care settings, but a new study from the School of Medicine indicates that chicken coops and sewage treatment plants also are hot spots of antibiotic resistance.

A new Washington University School of Medicine study reveals extensive antibiotic resistance in the gut bacteria of premature infants. The researchers say these findings support the push to minimize routine use of antibiotics in these patients.

As scientists look for replacements for our dwindling stock of antibiotics, the evolution of resistance is never far from their minds. Washington University in St. Louis biologist R. Fredrik Inglis explored the ability of bacteria to become resistant to a toxin called a bacteriocin by growing them for many generations in the presence of the toxin.

In children whose colds tend to progress and lead to severe wheezing and difficulty breathing — such that they are given oral corticosteroids as rescue therapy — researchers have shown that giving a common antibiotic at the first sign of symptoms can reduce the risk of the episode developing into a severe lower respiratory tract illness.

Three antibiotics that, individually, are not effective against a drug-resistant staph infection can kill the deadly pathogen when combined as a trio, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. They have killed the bug — methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) — in test tubes and laboratory mice, and believe the same strategy may work in people.

Infections with one of the most troublesome and least understood antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” are increasing at alarming rates, particularly in health-care settings. But by studying A. baumannii, a frequent cause of difficult-to-treat infections in hospitals,  researchers have identified a naturally occurring​ process that restores its vulnerability to antibiotics.

Victoria J. Fraser, MD, head of the Department of Medicine, was a featured speaker at TEDxStLouisWomen, Thursday, May 28. The presentations were part of TEDWomen, a national conference focused on women and girls as creators and change-makers. Fraser spoke about antibiotic resistance and its evolution into a public health crisis.

Scientists, including researchers from Washington University School of Medicine, have found antibiotic resistance genes in the bacterial flora of a South American tribe that never before had been exposed to antibiotic drugs. The findings suggest that bacteria in the human body have had the ability to resist antibiotics since long before such drugs were ever used to treat disease.