s better than any drug we currently have available,” Aroian said. “Our results pave the way to developing Cry5B as a safe and superior drug against roundworms that can rid a terrible class of parasites from hundreds of millions of children around the world. We are one step closer to finding a more complete treatment. Why this bacterium has evolved such a powerful anti-roundworm protein is because it is likely that roundworms and Bt interact in the wild, engaged in a sort of natural warfare with each other. If so, then the old adage ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ may turn to our advantage here.”
Yan Hu, a postdoctoral fellow in Aroian’s laboratory, and Sophia Georghiou, a graduate student, performed most of the experiments in the study along with Alan Kelleher, a staff scientist in Aroian’s laboratory.
The researchers were supported by grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a part of the National Institutes of Health.
In addition, two patents have been filed by UC San Diego on inventions related to the study. The specific inventions are available for licensing or commercial development through UCSD’s Technology Transfer Office at http://invent.ucsd.edu/technology/biomedical.shtml#infectious
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