A new study led by a team of researchers at New York Medical College suggests that that medical liability concerns may be playing a role in the increase of MRSA in health care settings by encouraging clinicians to prescribe antibiotics more often and more broadly than clinical circumstances and evidence-based guidelines warrant.

The study appeared in the September-October issue of the American Journal of Therapeutics.More »

ScienceDaily — More and more bacterial stems are developing resistance to previously life-saving antibiotics. Physicians have been warning that fatality rates from infections could increase dramatically in the very near future. Researchers at the Technische Universität München (TUM) have now cast light on a metabolic step that appears in many aggressive microorganisms like tuberculosis or malaria pathogens and that may provide a promising target for a new class of antibiotics.More »

ScienceDaily (July 2, 2009) — It’s common knowledge that a protective navy of bacteria normally floats in our intestinal tracts. Antibiotics at least temporarily disturb the normal balance. But it’s unclear which antibiotics are the most disruptive, and if the full array of “good bacteria” return promptly or remain altered for some time.More »

ScienceDaily (June 9, 2009) — A synthetic DNA binding compound has proved surprisingly effective at binding to the DNA of bacteria and killing all the bacteria it touched within two minutes. The DNA binding properties of the compound were first discovered in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick by Professor Mike Hannon and Professor Alison Rodger (Professor Mike Hannon is now at the University of Birmingham). However the strength of its antibiotic powers have now made it a compound of high interest for University of Warwick researchers working on the development of novel antibiotics.More »