Contributed by: Dr. Akilesh Ramasamy & Dr. Tamhankar
For decades there has been a stagnation in the antibiotic discovery. As said earlier in our blog, scientists started looking into the depths of the ocean, and in the soil for newer antibiotics. A major hurdle in the development of antibiotics is the source. Most antibiotics are developed from culturable microbes. Interestingly, about 99% of the environmental bacteria are not culturable. The discoveres of the new antibiotic say that they developed several methods to grow these uncultured organisms bu cultivation in situ or by using specific growth factors. In the process, they discovered a new antibiotic that they named teixobactin.
The mechanism of action of the antibiotic makes it unique and resistant to development of resistance.
