<i>In addition to the potential use for systemic delivery of drugs, scientists suggest that additional applications for these polymers could include adding them to every day personal and cleaning solutions.</i><p>Oh, good idea! Let's also put it in the drinking water and feed it to livestock! Nothing like that has ever caused resistance problems in the past!
Great research from IBM here. Antibiotic resistance is a prevalent problem in our society today, with doctors prescribing antibiotics to everyone for everything (to no fault of their own - because of patient demand).<p>Nanotechnology combining with advanced materials will lead to a better understanding of pathogens and ultimately how to eradicate them. These are great steps towards solving many real and serious issues facing society today. It's certainly refreshing to see different disciplines coming together to move us forward.<p>These [polymers] are years away from clinical use, but this is a glimpse into the not too distant future.
"that move quickly to target infected cells in the body": does it make sense to write this when you talk about bacteria? It looks to me like the author confused them with how viruses work: With bacteria you don't target "infected cells", you target infectious agents, the bacteriums.
I always wondered if there would ever be a post antibiotic mechanism to kill bacteria/viruses, along the lines of nanobots perhaps. Nice to see progress is being made in this regard...the human race may be depending on it!
This sounds like an excellent material to make central lines out of, given the current rates (~5%) of infection by antibiotic resistant S. Aureus and friends.
Very rudimentary understanding of Cancer so if someone from a field is here please do comment: can this technique also be used for destroying Cancerous cells?
Everything able to replace, as a cheap and therefore widely used biocide, this guy: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isothiazolinone" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isothiazolinone</a> which is responsible for my allergy and awful dermatitis, it is a good thing.
What of the huge population and variety of bacteria that are symbiotic and in some cases necessary for good health such as gut bacteria? How would this technology target only bad bacteria? Is it so customizable that variants can be generated for specific pathogen species?
How long until we stop targeting bacterial cells and start targeting healthy human cells? I'm surprised no one's commented yet about the weaponization prospects for these polymers.
I'm baffled by how this is both high-tech and totally bonkers, being able to produce a polymer specifically targeting specific harmful bacteria is quite an achievement by itself but it is dwarfed by the ability of IBM to do away with the laws of physics, making matter just disappear is an incredible feat.<p>I wonder if this polymer just turns invisble or if it cease to exist without leaving any other compounds, residues or energy.