Soil search unearths new class of antibiotics

Antibiotic resistant bacteria inside a biofilm, 3D illustration

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Malacidins have a novel mode of action and can kill MRSA

A new class of antibiotics – named malacidins – has been discovered by researchers genetically screening microbes from crowdsourced soil samples.

The discovery came from a citizen science project – Drugs from dirt – started by Sean Brady of the Rockefeller University, US. The project asked people to send in soil so that the DNA from microbes could be extracted and sequenced.