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Biophysicists have discovered why the bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB) are naturally somewhat resistant to antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones. Their findings, based on mapping the detailed three-dimensional structure of the drugs interacting with an essential enzyme in the TB germ, also reveal why some TB drugs are more potent than others and suggest how drug developers can make fluoroquinolones more efficacious against mutations that make the lung disease drug resistant.

Throughout human history, pandemics responsible for the deaths of millions have plagued mankind. Unfortunately, experts believe occurrence of another pandemic is not so much a question of “if” as a question of “when.”

Researchers from Lund University and the University of Zurich have developed a way to use mass spectrometry to measure hundreds of proteins in a single blood sample. With the help of protein patterns it is then possible to determine the severity of a patient's sepsis and which organs have been damaged. The method is presented in an article in Nature Communications.