DZIF team from Tübingen receives Rudolf Schülke Foundation’s Hygiene Prize
This year, the Rudolf Schülke Foundation awarded its renowned Hygiene Prize worth 15,000 € to a DZIF research team led by Dr Bernhard Krismer, Prof Andreas Peschel and Dr Alexander Zipperer from the Interfaculty Institute for Microbiology and Infection Medicine Tübingen (IMIT), in honour of their excellent work on the new antibiotic agent lugdunin.
The Hygiene Prize honours scientists who devise innovative solutions to specific problems in the field of hygiene, microbiology, preventive medicine and public health. In his laudatory speech, Prof Manfred Rotter from Vienna explained that the Tübingen scientists’ work had been so convincing with regard to methodology, presentation and medical implications that the jury unanimously voted them as Hygiene Prize awardees this year.
In their work, published in Nature, the scientists from Tübingen University and the German Center for Infection Research show that Staphylococcus lugdunensis, bacteria which reside in the human nose produces a previously unknown antibiotic substance that kills one of the most common pathogens responsible for infections. The substance, called “lugdunin” interferes with the bacteria’s energy metabolism and proved to be highly effective against S. aureus in skin infection models in mice as well as against numerous other pathogens.
“It is a new finding that human microflora can be also a source of antimicrobial substances,” explains Andreas Peschel, who coordinates the DZIF research field "Healthcare-associated and Antibiotic-resistant bacterial Infections”. In future at the DZIF, “lugdunin” will be investigated with regard to whether it can actually be applied therapeutically. For instance, as a preventive measure by colonising risk patients with harmless “lugdunin” producing bacteria to reduce the risk of infections with multidrug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Source: Rudolf Schülke Stiftung
