University of Washington other research news

As reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, university researchers have devised a mutant E. coli bacterium that will only grow at normal temperatures with expression of HIV reverse transcriptase. Expression of HIV RT in the mutant also makes it susceptible to AZT.

The assay should enable collection of a large number of active RT mutants and allow researchers to study the effects of different mutations on drug resistance. Nucleoside analogs then can be devised to be less susceptible to the emergence of resistant strains, the researchers wrote. ...