2-for-1 bacterial virulence factor revealed

(Washington University in St. Louis) Given that antibiotics are losing effectiveness faster than replacements are being found, chemist Timothy Wencewicz suggests we try a new approach. Drugs that hobble the production of virulence factors, small molecules that help bacteria to establish an infection in a host, would put much less selective pressure on bacteria and delay the evolution of resistance. In Infectious Diseases he describes recent work on a target virulence factor.