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true

New Technique Helps Researchers Understand How Bacteria Become Antibiotic Resistant

By Bente Bouthier

Posted October 28, 2019

image of student in lab

Jennifer Chlebek explains how the imaging technique works and what she looks for while she is studying bacteria. (Zach Herndon, WFIU/WTIU News)

Thanks to a new imaging technique invented at Indiana University, researchers are now able to watch parts and functions of bacteria that they couldn’t before.

Researchers can now watch bacteria’s tentacle-like appendages called, Pili, extend and retract, taking in DNA from its environment. This allows the bacteria to acquire new genetic traits and functions.

The process is how bacteria becomes resistant to antibiotics.

Jennifer Chlebek is a Ph.D. student who led the study. She says the new imaging technique allows a much better understanding of how the pili function.

“We thought for a long time we knew about how these motors worked," she says. "Trying to study them just a little bit further led us to uncover even one new mechanism of how these pili are dissembled. I think there's a lot more to be discovered just by studying them further and using this new technique."

Chlebek says understanding bacteria and how their pili function is key to disease prevention. Before the imaging technique invented by IU, researchers had to kill the cells to observe their structure.

She says the next step is to figure out more about how bacteria extend and retract their pili.

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