More and more bacterial stems are developing resistance to previously life-saving antibiotics. Physicians have been warning that fatality rates from infections could increase dramatically in the very near future. Researchers at the Technische Universität München (TUM) have now cast light on a metabolic step that appears in many aggressive microorganisms like tuberculosis or malaria pathogens and that may provide a promising target for a new class of antibiotics.

Researchers have determined the structure of a key genetic mechanism at work in bacteria, including some that are deadly to humans, in an important step toward the design of a new class of antibiotics, according to an accelerated publication that appeared online today as a "paper of the week" in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have achieved a breakthrough in monitoring the toxin-delivery system of highly pathogenic bacteria – an accomplishment that could help pave the way for new drugs that will be capable of neutralizing those germs.