Dundee researchers making antibiotic breakthroughs

A group of Dundee researchers are making key breakthroughs that could help prevent humans from developing a resistance to antibiotics.

The Dundee University team, in partnership with Oxford colleagues, are making 3D images of the relationship between drugs and the virus they are designed to act against.

It is hoped these pictures, taken by a synchrotron x-ray machine, can be used to discover ways of targeting disease and reduce the problem of illnesses becoming resistant to modern medicine.

Professor William Hunter, from the College of Life Sciences at Dundee, said, “Because these organisms are so tough, we need new ideas for drugs, and the way to do that is to find new targets or exploit old targets and come out with new compounds that will hit the old targets.”

More information is available on the university’s website.