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Team Builds Viruses To Combat Harmful "Biofilms"

Scientists from MIT and Boston University are creating viruses that will wipe out "biofilms" that contain harmful bacteria on surfaces of the human body and industrial or medical devices. "Bacterial biofilms can form almost anywhere, even on your teeth if you don't brush for a day or two. When they accumulate in hard to reach places such as the insides of food processing machines or medical catheters, however, they become persistent sources of infection. These bacteria excrete a variety of proteins, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids that together with other accumulating materials form an extracellular matrix, or in Lu's words, a "slimy layer," that encases the bacteria. Traditional remedies such as antibiotics are not as effective on these bacterial biofilms as they are on free-floating bacteria. In some cases, antibiotics even encourage bacterial biofilms to form."

6 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Oh please by Richard+McBeef · · Score: 2, Funny

    We already have stuff to combat this. For the human body, they're called "showers" or more broadly "hygiene". For medical instruments, they're called "autoclaves". None of which introduces foreign living biologics to the body.

    1. Re:Oh please by megaditto · · Score: 2, Funny

      Showers will not help you clean the internal organs. Adding some antiseptic to your blood will, however. Alcohol is a nice antiseptic, hense twice-daily shots of vodka or whisky are highly recommended.

      Since ethanol can dissolve many lipids, heavy drinking can also help you remove extra cholesterol buildup.

      The best time to sterilize your heart and combat cholesterol is right before driving to work. If you drink right before you get into the car and your commute is less than 30 minutes, the breathalyzer will be negative should you be pulled over!

      --
      Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
    2. Re:Oh please by ChrisMaple · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's scientifically proven that a small amount of alcohol (1 dose) every day reduces the possibilities of trombosis.
      Alas, trombosis, caused by the overuse of trombones, is not a common disease.
      --
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  2. Management by Shuntros · · Score: 2, Funny

    Excellent news. Now all we need is version 2.0 which is capable of removing slimey pockets of underperforming IT management.

  3. Re:A Remedy Worse Than the Illness by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's really no problem. We'll develop a fast-growing strain of wheat that we can use to make huge amounts of bread in order to develop molds that can be modified to feast on the virus.

    Of course, this strain of wheat may grow too fast to be manageable, but that's really no problem. We'll just release hordes of pigeons to eat the excess grain. When the pigeons get too numerous, we'll release lizards that will eat the pigeons' eggs, thus controlling the population. To control the lizards, we'll release waves and waves of Chinese needle snakes to wipe them out. Of course, the snakes are even worse than the lizards, so we'll line up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat. Then, when wintertime rolls around, the gorillas will simply freeze to death.

    As you can see, it's quite an elegant solution.

  4. Ghosts... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Lu was supported by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute predoctoral fellowship Even from the grave, Howard Hughes wages his continuing war on germs...