Now That's What I Call Useful Research

[Wage Slave]

Crikey - And what great news.

The decades-long drought in antibiotic discovery could be over after a breakthrough by US scientists.

Their novel method for growing bacteria has yielded 25 new antibiotics, with one deemed "very promising".

The last new class of antibiotics to make it to clinic was discovered nearly three decades ago.

The study, in the journal Nature, has been described as a "game-changer" and experts believe the antibiotic haul is just the "tip of the iceberg".

The heyday of antibiotic discovery was in the 1950s and 1960s, but nothing found since 1987 has made it into doctor's hands.

Since then microbes have become incredibly resistant. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis ignores nearly everything medicine can throw at it.

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30657486

[J.A.F.O]

Whew! now maybe they can tackle that Super Gonorrhea going around

Seriously though, this is outstanding news. If at the very least to help knock out iatrogenic infections.

The Duffel Blog is a satirical ezine

[Samurai_Jerk]

Between these new antibiotics, the drugs that stop you from getting AIDS, and the morning after pill it might finally be time to throw out the condoms.

[Wage Slave]

I heard the lead author, Kim Lewis, being interviewed on the radio:



He came across as a cautious man not at all prone to overstatement - And it really sounds like they have managed to find a way to produce a whole new class of antibiotics. Amazing news. That's the Nobel Prize taken care of then.

Interestingly, his university, both undergraduate and post graduate, was Moscow and

Lewis and North­eastern biology pro­fessor Slava Epstein co-​​authored the paper with col­leagues from the Uni­ver­sity of Bonn in Ger­many, Novo­Bi­otic Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals in Cam­bridge, Mass­a­chu­setts, and Selcia Lim­ited in the United Kingdom.

http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2015/01/kim-lewis-teixobactin-nature-paper/

[Russell]

Let's hope it will not be fed to cattle...

[Coligny]

The team created a "subterranean hotel" for bacteria. One bacterium was placed in each "room" and the whole device was buried in soil.

In few centuries we'll look back at 2000' era medicine... And it will make for quite a lot of embarrassing memories...

How about a forward darwinist computer spending his days randomizing genomes and trying to figure what their expression would accomplish ?

[matsuki]

Subterranean bacteria love hotels...how long before this hits JAV?

[J.A.F.O]

Subterranean bacteria love hotels...how long before this hits JAV?

Yea I can guess someone probably has it in the works now. It will be conveniently located between the tentacle rape and school girl bus molesting.

[Takechanpoo]

Energy-efficient method for producing nanocellulose

The 2015 Marcus Wallenberg Prize is being awarded to a group of researchers from Japan and France for their development of an energy-efficient method to produce nanofibrillated cellulose. Stabilizers in chemicals, food and cosmetics, raw materials for new types of textile fibres or composites or materials for wound dressing are just a few examples of the wide field of possible applications.

Nanofibrillated cellulose has great potentials. This nanoscale material has a surface area and shape that enables the formation of strong networks. The manufacturing process where the wood pulp is mechanically broken down to its nanoscale building blocks is however very energy-intensive, which has hampered industrial interest so far.
Groundbreaking discovery

Professor Akira Isogai and Associate Professor Tsuguyuki Saito from the University of Tokyo and Dr Yoshiharu Nishiyama from the Centre de recherches sur les macromolécules végétales, Cermav in Grenoble, France, have found and developed an energy-efficient way to produce nanofibrillated cellulose. Their discovery on using a specific oxidation reaction as a tool to open up the wood material prior to mechanical disintegration has reduced the energy demand dramatically. The three scientists are awarded the 2015 Marcus Wallenberg Prize of SEK 2 million for this groundbreaking discovery. – The work of the prize-winners has stimulated more intensive research on nanofibrillated cellulose and its applications around the world, says Professor Johanna Buchert from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. She is also a member of the Prize Selection Committee of the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation.

http://www.mwp.org/energy-efficient-met ... cellulose/