US university researchers' discovery against drug-resistant bugs

Researchers at the universities of Michigan and Minnesota have reported the discovery of a new method of developing antibiotics which, they claim, is "an important step in fighting the growing number of drug-resistant infections."

Robert Fecik, assistant professor in medicinal chemistry at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy said: "this type of research can help us make new antibiotic molecules."

Dr Fecik was one of the lead authors of the research, which appears in the on-line edition of the Nature Chemical Biology journal, along with David Sherman and Janet Smith, of the University of Michigan's Life Sciences Institute. Together, the interdisciplinary team from the two mid-western US universities, for the first time, crystallized an enzyme in the process of closing the antibiotic ring that is used to fight bacteria. This means that scientists can develop a clearer understanding of how enzyme molecules work.