Hebrew University Discovery Explains Why Antibiotics and Vaccines Sometimes Fail

While one subgroup may be destroyed by a drug or vaccine, others survive and continue the infection.

By Shula Rosen

A team of scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem says it has uncovered why antibiotics and vaccines often fall short in treating stubborn infections.

Their newly developed method, called Microcolony-seq, reveals hidden differences among bacterial populations that had previously appeared identical, offering hope for more effective treatments.

Dr. Raya Faigenbaum-Romm, who led the study under the supervision of Prof. Nathalie Q. Balaban, explained to the Times of Israel that bacteria inside the same patient are not uniform.

“Our method, Microcolony-seq, is important because it enables us to characterize the different subgroups of bacteria that are causing infection,” she said. “This discovery could change how doctors treat bacterial illnesses.”

The research, published in the journal Cell, shows that infections can contain distinct bacterial subpopulations.

In the lab, these groups maintained their unique behaviors for up to 10 hours, allowing researchers to analyze them outside the body.

This stability provided crucial insight into why some treatments fail; while one subgroup may be destroyed by a drug or vaccine, others survive and continue the infection.

Using their new approach, the team examined dangerous pathogens such as E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

They found that bacteria split into subgroups with different strategies for survival, some clinging tightly to host cells, others focusing on movement or resistance to harsh environments.

In the case of Staphylococcus aureus, researchers identified three distinct subpopulations within a single patient, each with its own strengths.

Balaban said infections are “more like a coalition of different players, each with its own strengths,” rather than a single uniform enemy.

This helps explain why promising drugs and vaccines, particularly against Staphylococcus aureus, have failed in clinical trials.

The discovery could lead to more precise therapies by targeting all bacterial subgroups instead of just one.

Beyond medical use, the Microcolony-seq method may also be applied to studying fungi, gut microbiomes, and industrial processes.

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