Physics News

Alternative approaches to medicine are stock-in-trade in the Arizona State University laboratory of microbiologist Shelley Haydel. So when ASU senior Jenny Koehl joined Haydel's investigative team seeking firsthand knowledge of how basic research is done, how drugs are tested and potential cures produced, she found it and much more. Their results have been published in the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) ONE.

"This work sets a baseline from which to look for potential mechanisms of antibacterial action," said Cunningham, lead author, who is now a research technician with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
"We need helpful alternatives, natural approaches to antibacterial cures, because there is bacterial resistance to drugs," Koehl said. "Knowing the mechanisms of action will help us develop our own topical treatments."
"Because natural mineral mixtures can be variable, both mineralogically and chemically, we must continue to define specific chemical properties that influence the antibacterial effectiveness," Haydel said. "Our goal is to understand the details, so we can, in the future, perhaps generate mineral mixtures that mimic the chemical compositions and environment, so that the antibacterial activity can be controlled and ensured."
"This study has given me an idea of how things move from idea to shelf," Koehl said.