University of Colorado Boulder researchers have developed a new way of counting microorganisms that works as much as 36 times faster than conventional methods, cuts plastic use more than 15-fold and substantially decreases the cost and carbon footprint of biomedical research.
University of Colorado Boulder researchers have developed a new way of counting microorganisms that works as much as 36 times faster than conventional methods, cuts plastic use more than 15-fold and substantially decreases the cost and carbon footprint of biomedical research.
The technique, described Nov. 2 in the journal Nature Microbiology, could revolutionize the way microbiology experiments are conducted around the world, allowing clinicians to diagnose and treat infections faster and researchers to test potential new antibiotics in a fraction of the time.
The invention comes as concern about antibiotic resistance grows worldwide, with drug-resistant bugs contributing to nearly 5 million deaths globally in 2019.
“We are in the middle of a silent pandemic of antimicrobial resistance and there is an urgent need to speed up the discovery of new antibiotics,” said senior author Anushree Chatterjee, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at CU Boulder. “We believe this new method can do that, and much more.”
Read more at University of Colorado at Boulder
Image: Anushree Chatterjee, right works with research assistant Grace Lynch in the Chatterjee Lab. (Credit: Casey A. Cass/CU Boulder)
