DARPA to Research Use of Nanobiotics

09.12.2011 [11:23]
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Baku, December 9 (AZERTAC). It has only been a few decades since medicine ushered in the antibiotic era with the widespread use of penicillin during WWII. Today, many scientists believe we are beginning what one might call the post-antibiotic era; a time when mutations in existing pathogens evolve at a faster rate than our ability to destroy them. It is for this very reason that DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has decided to invest funds into developing “readily adaptable nanotherapeutics” as an adjunct to conventional antibiotics.

Why would we turn our research efforts away from conventional antibiotics? One reason is that antibiotics are becoming increasingly less useful due to increasing bacterial resistance. This allows the nefarious mutated pathogens to survive and reproduce unchecked. Historically, as scientists develop new and more powerful antibiotics, the pathogens respond by developing resistance to the point where the most powerful drugs in our arsenal are no longer effective against them. This fact is especially important from the military medical point of view where we may be faced with dealing with genetically engineered bioweapons.

DARPA to Research Use of Nanobiotics

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