LCN/UCL/Physics/IPLS research in the national media with antimicrobial bullets from breast milk
Scientists from the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN) and National Physical Laboratory (NPL) have converted a breast milk protein into an artificial virus that kills bacteria by creating bullet holes in the membrane that surrounds and protects the bacteria. These “viral bullets” may represent a new weapon in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.
Read more about this work at the NLP webpage and in media outlets listed below:
Journal link: Structurally plastic peptide capsules for synthetic antimicrobial viruses.
Valeria Castelletto, Emiliana de Santis, Hasan Alkassem, Baptiste Lamarre, James E. Noble, Santanu Ray, Angelo Bella, Jonathan R. Burns, Bart W. Hoogenboom, and Maxim G. Ryadnov. Chemical Science (2016), http://doi.org/10.1039/C5SC03260A.