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Molecular research by DHS Fellow aims to reduce disease

 (Oct. 24, 2006)

    According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, antibiotic-resistant bacteria can multiple by a million-fold per day. The result is an army of bacteria within the human body able to resist modern medicine and our own internal disease prevention.

    Finding ways to exploit the cellular machinery of bacteria to fight antibiotic-resistance is the mission of 2004 DHS Fellow Nora Wang (above). As a PhD candidate in Organic Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she works to find molecules that prompt bacteria to kill themselves.

    “The problem of antibiotic resistance not only affects the treatment of infectious diseases, but also poses a bioterror threat. The release of a superbug resistant to modern antibiotics could be detrimental to the infected population, as it would be extremely difficult to treat with current technology. Novel antibiotics that target different cellular machinery are needed to kill bacteria that cause persistent infections.”

    At the root of Nora’s research are plasmids, a small circle of DNA able to move from one bacterium to another, and which can contain scores of antibiotic resistances. Her research aim is to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria via the creation of novel molecules able to disrupt the defense mechanisms of the plasmids themselves. It is hoped that, ultimately, Nora’s research will reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections and serve to limit the number of trips we all may make to the doctors’ office.

    Nora seeks to graduate in 2009.