Internet Journal of Emerging Medical Technologies

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MIT Student Invents Effective Bacteriophage

Posted on February 28, 2008

Timothy Lu, a graduate student at MIT, was awarded the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for developing a bacteriophage, which, in conjunction with antibiotics, can become a potent weapon against drug resistant bacteria.Lu has engineered bacteriophage to boost antibiotic effectiveness. The bacteriophage carries DNA that codes for factors that target bacterial gene networks, which former treatments failed to reach, and destroys bacterial antibiotic resistance mechanisms. The weakened bacterial defenses enable antibiotics to perform better. Administered together, Lu's bacteriophage and antibiotics have...

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antibiotic resistance , food processing