Antibiotic Resistance, Bacteria Virulence (Best of the Web)

FEATURED: How Bacteria “Talk”, by Bonnie Bassler

Bonnie Bassler discovered that bacteria “talk” to each other, using a chemical language that lets them coordinate defense and mount attacks. The find has stunning implications for medicine, industry and our understanding of ourselves. Recorded at TED2009. Join the conversation at TED.com

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A great TED Talk. Explains bacteria virulence well.

AMBASSADORS

Jean-Loup Romet-Lemonne is the President & CEO of BioBusiness.TV and Chairman of the Board for Antabio SAS, an antibacterial company with a focus on anti-virulence.

Helmuth van Es, Ph.D. is managing director of BioConsilium offering strategic, scientific, commercial and corporate advice to existing biotechs, academic institutes, startups and financial organizations. He started his industry career at Crucell. He is co-founder of Galapagos where he was Head of Science until 2006. Until 2008 he was CSO of Stem Cell Innovations, a stem cell company focussing on discovery discovery applications. Since then he has (co)founded a number of startup companies including Audion Therapeutics developing therapies for hearing loss and more recently BioCygnus, an immune monitoring diagnostics startup. He serves on the board of Antabio and Spinnovation Analytical.

OTHER GREAT VIDEOS

1. Darwin and the selection of super-resistant bacteria by antibiotics. Fun cartoon to watch. Fitting for any audience. Watch on YouTube: Mutations – selection: the bacteria resist.
2. BBC’s Liz Bonin gives a good explanation of the bacterial resistance phenomenon. She explores another approach to fighting bacterial resistance when antibiotics do not work, by inhibiting bacterial Quorum Sensing (the inter-bacterial communication system). Fitting for any audience. Watch on YouTube: Antibiotics and Quorum Sensing Inhibition.
3. A fascinating debate about the coming “post-antibiotic apocalypse.” Steve Paikin on “The Agenda” (38min). Watch on YouTube: The End of Antibiotics?.
4. MSRA explained. Why hospital waste pollution increases. Watch on YouTube: MRSA – Why, How & What Happened?.
5. Where is that superbug? What to do to protect ourselves from MRSA. Watch on YouTube: MRSA – Staph Infection.
6. This scientific animation explains bacteria structure, penicillin’s mechanisms of action, and how penicillin resistance develops. Watch on YouTube: ß-Lactams: Mechanisms of Action and Resistance.

COMPANIES

This list is non-exhaustive. To add a company, submit it’s name in the form below
PHASE 2

• Achaogen, aminoglycoside ACHN-490
• Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Cephalosporin CXA101
• NovaBay Pharma, Aganocide NVC-422

PHASE 1

• Anacor Pharmaceuticals, oxaborole GSK2251052
• Basilea Pharmaceutica, monobactam BAL30072

PRE-CLINICAL

• Antabio SAS