Viruses have a bad reputation — but some of them could one day save your life, says biotech entrepreneur Alexander Belcredi. In this fascinating talk, he introduces us to phages, naturally-occurring viruses that hunt and kill harmful bacteria with deadly precision, and shows how these once-forgotten organisms could provide new hope against the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
For this Week’s Discussion Board, you are asked to do some research on antibiotic resistance and alternative therapies that are being investigated to treat infections (i.e. phage therapy, probiotics, antimicrobial peptides, etc.). Go to PubMed and find at least one peer-reviewed article to summarize and discuss. Our goal is to maximize our class’s understanding of the important issue of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, and alternative therapeutic approaches. As an alternative, you may add a comment about your personal experience or understanding of this topic (i.e work in a research lab, a book you read, etc).
Please be sure to cite any peer-reviewed scientific articles that you rely upon (use the APA style citation format).
Here is a paper about alternative therapies; you can look at the papers cited here for ideas if you like:
Kaul G., Shukla M., Dasgupta A., Chopra S. (2019) Alternative Therapies to Antibiotics to Combat Drug-Resistant Bacterial Pathogens. In: Ahmad I., Ahmad S., Rumbaugh K. (eds) Antibacterial Drug Discovery to Combat MDR. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9871-1_9Links to an external site.