<story><title>IBM Research produces staph-killing polymers that leave healthy cells alone </title><url>http://www.research.ibm.com/articles/nanomedicine.shtml</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jrockway</author><text>&lt;i&gt;In addition to the potential use for systemic delivery of drugs, scientists suggest that additional applications for these polymers could include adding them to every day personal and cleaning solutions.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oh, good idea!  Let&amp;#x27;s also put it in the drinking water and feed it to livestock!  Nothing like that has ever caused resistance problems in the past!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cwp</author><text>True, caution is warranted.&lt;p&gt;But I think you missed a key point in the article. Unlike antibiotics, these polymers disintegrate. The article isn&amp;#x27;t clear on the mechanism–is it part of destroying a bacterium, decay over time or what?-but the implication is that they can be targeted to kill specific bacteria, without then escaping in to the wild to apply selection pressure on bacteria that aren&amp;#x27;t threatening somebody&amp;#x27;s life.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not like these researchers are unaware of drug-resistant bacteria. The whole point of the statement you quote is that adding them to cleaning agents &lt;i&gt;won&amp;#x27;t&lt;/i&gt; breed resistant bacteria. They may be wrong, but they&amp;#x27;re not stupid.</text></comment>
<story><title>IBM Research produces staph-killing polymers that leave healthy cells alone </title><url>http://www.research.ibm.com/articles/nanomedicine.shtml</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jrockway</author><text>&lt;i&gt;In addition to the potential use for systemic delivery of drugs, scientists suggest that additional applications for these polymers could include adding them to every day personal and cleaning solutions.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oh, good idea!  Let&amp;#x27;s also put it in the drinking water and feed it to livestock!  Nothing like that has ever caused resistance problems in the past!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>troels</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;They try to mimic what the immune system does: the polymer attaches to the bacteria&amp;#x27;s membrane and then facilitates destabilization of the membrane. It falls apart, everything falls out and there&amp;#x27;s little opportunity for it to develop resistance to these polymers.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;But yeah, caution might be a good idea.</text></comment>