Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Advertise in our classifieds section
Your classified listing could be here!
October 4, 2022
LISTEN IN

UT scientists study new approach to treating antibiotic resistance

0217_LexiAcevedo_antibiotics
Lexi Acevedo

UT physicists are delving into the world of biology to discover what makes antibiotic resistance tick.

Physics associate professor Vernita Gordon is working with a team of graduate students to study biofilms, or dense clusters of the Pseudomonas bacteria. These biofilms help invasive bacteria build resistance against our immune systems. Gordon said she hopes her work with biofilms has implications for how we treat and understand antibiotic resistance.

“Antibiotic resistance is increasing fast,” Gordon said. “We need new ways to approach these diseases that are in an antibiotics arms race with us, because it’s pretty clear the bacteria are going to win that race.”


Physics graduate student Kristin Kovach and microbiology graduate student Megan Davis-Fields are coauthors of the study. They are specifically studying the structure of the biofilms, which Kovach said is a novel approach.

Kovach added that they are one of only a couple of people who have studied biofilms using physics.

The team studied the forces acting on the structures of the biofilm to determine how different polymers, or chemical building blocks, influenced the stiffness of the structure. Kovach said the stiffer the biofilm structure, the more resistant to antibiotics the biofilm was.

“The way we grew and measured biofilms is different than anyone else,” Kovach said. “By doing this, we were able to measure easily how different polymers affect mechanics of the biofilm. ”

Kovach and Davis-Fields said the results from these measurements helped them discover that the variations between biofilms were dependent on polysaccharide, a molecule made up of simple sugars, produced by the biofilm.

Biofilms cause problems in cystic fibrosis patients in particular because the biofilm hardens and clumps together as mucus, Kovach said. She compared these films to the plaque that can grow on teeth.

“Think like when you go to the dentist — the stuff that builds up on your teeth is biofilm too,” Kovach said. “You can brush off the softer plaque/biofilm with your toothbrush, but your dentist has to scrape at the biofilm that’s gotten too hard to remove on its own.”

Kovach said that by making the biofilms weaker, the immune system has more ability to fight antibiotic resistance.

“An obvious way forward to help remediate infections: Make the biofilms weaker by targeting the polysaccharides in the biofilm so that your antibiotics and immune cells can get to the bacteria to clear the infection,” Kovach said.  

The study was published the Nature Biofilms and Microbiomes journal in January.

Gordon said she and her team will continue their research, looking for ways to weaken infections by breaking up hard biofilms.

“Now that we know what polymers make the biofilm strong, we need to figure out ways to weaken those polymers,” Davis-Fields said. “This new perspective has the potential to improve the lives of a lot of people.”

 

More to Discover
Activate Search
UT scientists study new approach to treating antibiotic resistance