BioCentury
ARTICLE | Translation in Brief

Quorum sensitivity

How ETH Zurich’s quorum sensing could prevent drug resistance in some infections

June 13, 2018 9:13 PM UTC

By engineering HEK cells with machinery to produce and secrete quorum-sensing molecules, an ETH Zurich team has developed microbe-sensing technology it believes could prevent the development of drug resistance by reducing biofilm formation and possibly treat infectious disease.

Selection pressure caused by widespread use of antibiotics has given rise to drug-resistant bacterial strains, underscoring the need for new therapies that do not select for drug-resistant mutant organisms by killing pathogenic populations...