IBM

Antibiotics have proved to be a valuable weapon in the fight against infection, but their popularity has also become their undoing. Although the drugs cripple harmful microbes from within, bacteria that survive such sabotage tend to develop resistance that makes them even more dangerous. To counter this, a team of researchers led by IBM Research–Almaden in San Jose, Calif., and Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology are developing a technique that enlists polymer-based nanoparticles to supplement antibiotics by destroying bacteria protective...