Studying multi-drug resistance implications of the 'excludon', a novel antisense-based regulatory structure in bacteria

As bacterial resistance to antibiotics is growing, Dr. Ofir Cohen aims to tackle this serious problem by exploiting a recently discovered switch mechanism capable of turning off certain bacterial genes. In particular, it seems to control genes associated with multi-drug resistance. By cataloguing these switches and their functions in multiple microorganisms, Cohen has shown that they are widespread across species and could provide an avenue to treat infections caused by dangerous bacteria that have already become resistant.