New antibiotic family found in soil

Scientists from Rockefeller University in the United States have found a new family of antibiotics in the soil, which may provide a new means to combat drug-resistant bugs like MRSA.

The team discovered that compounds found in soil called malacidins can kill off a wide range of superbugs that conventional drugs are no longer able to control. 

Details of the study were published in the journal Nature Microbiology.

Around 700,000 people a year are known to die from drug-resistant superbugs, which have evolved since the last family of antibiotics was developed in the 1980s.

However, it may take some time and further research to reach the point where malacidins can take the place of the current array of increasingly ineffective antibiotcs.

Dr Sean Brady, who led the research team, said: "It is impossible to say when, or even if, an early stage antibiotic discovery like the malacidins will proceed to the clinic.

"It is a long, arduous road from the initial discovery of an antibiotic to a clinically used entity."

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