Program ID: Innovation Anthology #470
Program Date: 04/03/2012
Program Category: Health and Medicine
Antimicrobial Peptides Useful in Fighting Superbugs
There’s hope in the war against superbugs thanks to the work of biochemist Dr. Hans Vogel.
Rather than developing more heavyduty antibiotics, Dr. Vogel’s research at the University of Calgary is focused on more natural means of fighting off bad bacteria.
That includes tweaking the body’s own antimicrobial peptides so we don’t kill off the good bacteria when we attack the bad.
DR. HANS VOGEL: Most of these bacteria actually live in your gut. And they actually help to digest your food And so this is the flip side. We talk about superbugs and we get worried about it. But at the same time we have other bacteria that are friendly to us and that live together with us and that we don’t really necessarily want to kill when we are going after these superbugs. And so what we’re trying to do with these peptides is to sort of emulate the natural response that we have so that we can maybe through these peptides augment the response that our body normally has to when bacteria come in that you don’t really want to have, that we can augment this response.
According to Dr. Vogel, the antimicrobial peptides could be administered by ointments.
Thanks today to ALBERTA INNOVATES HEALTH SOLUTIONS
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
