From geobiology to cystic fibrosis

Probing the evolutionary roots of ancient bacteria may open a new line of attack on the leading cause of death in cystic fibrosis: opportunistic infection

Lars Dietrich
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The agony and the ecstasy of basic research is that wherever you begin, you never know where you’ll end up. Consider the Massachusetts Institute of Technology laboratory of geobiologist Dianne K. Newman, which focuses on how ancestral bacteria on the early earth evolved the ability to metabolize minerals. What might seem a purely academic question led Newman and postdoctoral fellow Lars Dietrich to new insights into the leading cause of death among the 30,000 Americans with cystic fibrosis (CF). TO READ MORE GO TO:

https://www.ascb.org/ascbsec/press/embargo/ASCB-pressbook08_Dietrich.pdf