potentially hefty breakthru in biofilm treatment

[Guest guest]

This guy is making (very recently) absolutely enormous claims to the

media, which don't seem to be supported by any work indexed in

pubmed to date, but rather by unreviewed experiments in his lab:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/bu-bur101206.php

I have to write a mock grant application for a class, and was

looking down this direction. Too bad for me, it's just now already

cookin.

What he said at above URL seems broadly sound to me (insofar as I'm

informed about this sort of thing, that is). Assuming he has the

data to back it up. I lack the patience to work through this one

carefully

http://biology.binghamton.edu/davies/frominsidebu.htm

but it might be of interest.

Basically he claims to be able to disperse biofilms by small-

molecule drugging of bacterial signaling. It sounds like what he is

using, precisely, is a/the native pheromone or close to it. If it

does not have good properties as far as absorption, clearance, and

toxicity - and unfortunately, a pretty big chunk of small molecules

do not - then there may or may not be much room for chemical

alterations. So (assuming his stuff is in the first place really as

potent in vitro as he says) a safe systemic therapy mgiht well be

within reach, yet that is far from assured at this point. And the

process may well take several years.

If this is the real thing, then wow, more power to this guy, and I

hope he enjoys his zillionaire retirement. This will be very

engrossing to watch and has the potential to really change medicine.