Words about science and hiking
No one questions that antibiotic resistance has risen in the last 20 years and has contributed to a substantial number of deaths. But this is a high-level question, and it deserves a high-level answer. Antibiotics prevent death and suffering from bacterial infections. That’s the criterion by which the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy should be judged. Read More …
RNA therapeutics have been around for a long time. Stanley Crooke founded Isis Pharmaceuticals (diplomatically renamed Ionis in 2015) in the late 1980s. They got an approval for treating CMV infections in AIDS patients in 1998 (a commercial flop)…and didn’t get a second approval until 2013. I don’t know the investment history of Isis, but Read More …
I’ve suggested that antibiotic resistance will lead to improvements in healthcare: when hospitals cannot reliably treat infections, they are forced to prevent them (which they should have been doing all along). That change in emphasis necessarily requires a change in culture. Infection treatment is largely driven by individual practitioners, but effective infection prevention requires cooperation Read More …
It seems like a good idea. After all, combination therapy of antivirals for HIV treatment transformed AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable chronic condition. But bacteria are not viruses. The scenario in which combining antibiotics makes most sense is when long-term therapy is anticipated—such as for TB treatment. Development of resistance to single Read More …
NB – this question was first posted on Quora in 2010 The fact that this question is as relevant in 2019 as it was in 2010 tells us something, does it not? I think we can throw out the “we just need more time” plea. Francis Collins, leader of the human genome initiative and now Read More …
Let’s step back a bit on this question. We care about antibiotics and antibiotic resistance because they impact our ability to avoid suffering and death due to bacterial infections. Antibiotics are just a means to an end. Antibiotic resistance blocks one path to that end, but it is just one path; there are others. I’ll Read More …
Giant viruses are cool. Their genomes are bigger than those of many bacteria (especially endosymbionts), and they encode many housekeeping functions that are not obviously necessary for the viral lifestyle. They blur boundaries between the neat little categories we use to describe biological entities and thus remind us that those categories are conveniences, not reality. Read More …
A new report of widespread colonization and infection by a superbug- (carbapenemase-resistant Klebsiella) is just out, and it is truly alarming. Not sure why it hasn’t cracked the mainstream press yet. I don’t have access to the full report, but Jon Otter has published a good summary which I will quote here, although you absolutely should Read More …
I’m always gratified to see my prejudices confirmed by people who are smarter and more knowledgeable than me. So a devastating critique of genomics and personalized medicine is the intellectual equivalent of having your dog stare soulfully into your eyes (while you are holding a treat). It’s just irresistible. The paper in question, by Michael Read More …