Cell-free quest for new antibiotics

The rising resistance of bacteria to antibiotics presents an escalating global health risk. Now, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany, have combined synthetic biology and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a more efficient approach to finding and creating new antimicrobial peptides that are effective against a wide range of bacteria.

Bioactive peptides play a key role in health and medicine. More than 80 peptide-based drugs are currently in use, all isolated from natural sources. However, antibiotic resistance is estimated to cause more than one million deaths worldwide each year. ...