Continuing with our month-long celebration of Nature Genetics 25th anniversary, I have chosen to highlight a study by Sarah Fortune and colleagues estimating mutation rate differences between different lineages of Mycobacterium tuberculosis published in June 2013. Read more
A new study published online this week in Nature Genetics reports the discovery of novel host targets of HIV infection identified from a high-throughput CRISPR/Cas9-based screen. This screen was performed in CD4 + T-cells and was designed to find candidate genes required for successful HIV infection, but whose inactivation did not affect cell viability. In this way, potential drug targets for anti-HIV therapy could be discovered. Read more
Antibiotics emerged as miracle drugs and “silver bullets” in the early 20th century, revolutionizing medicine and our ability to combat infectious disease while positively impacting health and lifespans on a large scale. This remarkable triumph held steady for many years, and consequently antibiotic research and development diminished as a priority due to the seeming defeat of bacterial infections. However, the selective pressure that came with antibiotic exposure led to the development of bacterial resistance to these compounds, motivating renewed interest in what is now an extremely important public health issue. Mechanisms of resistance are many and ever-evolving, and we know now that it is not a matter of IF bacteria will become resistant to a class of antibiotics, but when. The search for new and potentially exploitable bacterial vulnerabilities, then, becomes a constant enterprise in order for us to keep pace with the bacteria in the antibiotics/resistance arms race. Read more