Use of antibiotics in preemies has lasting, potentially harmful effects
Nearly all babies born prematurely receive antibiotics. A new study from the School of Medicine suggests that such early antibiotic treatment could have long-lasting and potentially harmful effects on the gut microbiome.
Chemist Wencewicz receives teacher-scholar award
Tim Wencewicz, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, has been recognized with a 2019 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. He will use the funding for his research to help develop new antibiotics, to combat antibiotic resistance and to improve the university’s organic chemistry curriculum.
Bacterial flora of remote tribespeople carries antibiotic resistance genes
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.
The dwindling stock of antibiotics, and what to do about it
Pharmaceutical companies have largely abandoned the business of discovering and developing antibiotics and our stock of these “miracle drugs” is beginning to shrink. Michael Kinch and his colleagues at Washington University in St. Louis are working to create new models for drug discovery that could replace the failed private enterprise model.
Zombie bacteria are nothing to be afraid of
Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have obtained the first experimental evidence that there are at least two fail-safe points in the bacterial cell cycle. If the fail-safes are activated, the cell is forced to exit the cell cycle forever. It then enters a zombie-like state and is unable to reproduce
even under the most favorable of conditions. Drugs that trigger the fail-safes are already under development.
University’s research key in new international guidelines for treatment of severe malnutrition
The World Health Organization has released new guidelines for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition, based in large part on research at the School of Medicine. Shown is the school’s Mark Manary, MD, whose research helped spur the changes.
In children with fever, gene profiling distinguishes bacterial from viral infections
Researchers have shown they can distinguish between viral and bacterial infections in children with fever by profiling the activity of genes in a blood sample.
Antibiotics prevent some hospital UTIs
Urinary tract infections are among the most common infections acquired in hospitals, with most linked to the use of catheters. New research suggests that some urinary tract infections could be prevented if patients receive an antibiotic at the time they have a urinary catheter removed.
Antibiotics cut death rates for malnourished kids
Severely malnourished children are far more likely to recover and survive when given antibiotics along with a therapeutic peanut-butter based food than children who are treated with the therapeutic food alone, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. Indi Trehan, MD, the study’s lead author, shows parents in Malawi how to measure medication.
Timing of antibiotics important in reducing infections after C-section
Giving antibiotics before cesarean section surgery rather than just after the newborn’s umbilical cord is clamped cuts the infection rate at the surgical site in half, according to infection disease specialist David K. Warren, MD, and his colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
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