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Viruses that target bacteria could help give antibiotics a boost. An engineered phage renders E. coli more susceptible to DNA-damaging drugs.MedicalRF.com / Science Photo Library Biologists have engineered viruses to weaken the bacteria they infect, leaving the bugs more vulnerable to antibiotics. With more bacteria becoming resistant to the most commonly used antibiotics, the viral approach could extend the useful lifetime of these drugs.The notion of fighting infection by harnessing the viruses that infect and kill bacteria dates back nearly a century. Doctors in the former Soviet Union routinely prescribed a cocktail of such viruses — called 'bacteriophages' or just...

Survey of bacteria reveals an array of antibiotic-resistance. Bacteria that live in soil have been found to harbour an astonishing armoury of natural weapons to fight off antibiotics. The discovery could help researchers anticipate the next wave of drug-resistant 'superbugs'. Researchers have long known that soil-dwelling bacteria make natural antibiotics, and that they have inbuilt ways to survive their own and other bugs' toxins; in some cases, the genes that help them dodge antibiotics have transferred into infectious bugs that plague humans. Microbiologists have identified a few of the ways that soil microbes neutralize antibiotics. But Gerard Wright and his...