New Genes Provides Hope for Stemming Staph Infections

The two repressors and the gene systems they regulate are possible new drug targets for controlling Staph growth.

The discovery of two genes that encode copper- and sulfur-binding repressors in the hospital terror Staphylococcus aureus means two new potential avenues for controlling the increasingly drug-resistant bacterium, according to the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

"We need to come up with new targets for antibacterial agents," said Indiana University Bloomington biochemist David Giedroc, who led the project. "Staph is becoming more and more multi-drug resistant, and both of the systems we discovered are promising."

The work was a collaboration of members of Giedroc's laboratory, and that of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine infectious disease specialist Eric Skaar, and University of Georgia