JANUARY 30 • 2020 | 45

O

ne of the scariest 
things about being 
admitted to 
the hospital is the 
possibility of catch-
ing some dangerous, 
drug-resistant super-
bug.
The chances of 
that happening could 
become slimmer with 
a new discovery from Israeli 
researchers, who found that 
aggressive bacteria can be 
controlled if treated within a 
specific timeframe.
Like all living organisms, 
bacteria develop defenses 
against hostile elements in 

their environment — in their 
case, antibiotics. They can do 
so by acting “tolerant” 
and lying dormant 
during antibiotic treat-
ment which misses 
them because it only 
knows how to spot and 
kill growing targets. 
After evading this 
round of treatment, 
the bacteria become resilient.
It’
s this “tolerant” stage that 
Professor Nathalie Balaban 
from the Hebrew University 
of Jerusalem and Dr. Maskit 
Bar-Meir from Shaare Zedek 
Medical Center have tackled, 
with their findings recently 

published in Science magazine.
Bearing in mind that the 
tolerance stage lasts only a 
few days and can’
t be detected 
in standard medical labs, the 
two developed a lab test that 
gauges antibiotic tolerance. 
This means that doctors can 
now administer the correct 
medication within this narrow 
timeframe before resistance 
sets in.
In a previous study, Balaban 
developed a mathematical 
model that described, mea-
sured and predicted when bac-
teria would develop tolerance 
to a particular antibiotic. Now, 
Balaban repeated the study 
together with Bar-Meir, this 
time analyzing daily bacterial 
samples from hospitalized 
patients with life-threatening, 
persistent MRSA (methicil-
lin-resistant Staphylococcus 

aureus) infections.
Like in the lab, the bacteria 
developed tolerance followed 
by resistance, leading to the 
failure of antibiotic treatment.
If medical centers adopt this 
lab test, doctors could quickly 
and easily detect whether a 
patient’
s bacteria are tolerant 
of a planned antibiotic treat-
ment before it’
s administered. 
Based on the patient’
s bacteria 
profile, doctors could also 
handpick antibiotics with a 
greater chance of success.
“Using the right combi-
nation of available antibiotic 
drugs at the outset could dra-
matically increase a patient’
s 
survival rate before their infec-
tion becomes tolerant to all 
the antibiotics in our arsenal,” 
Balaban explained. 

From UnitedWithIsrael.org

Excellent Pay

Flexible Hours

Paid Training


Apply Online Today!

2020 Census Jobs Available!

Form D-467
September 2018

2020census.gov/jobs

1-855-JOB-2020
(1-855-562-2020)
Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339 TTY / ASCII
www.gsa.gov/fedrelay

business with and within the federal government.
The U.S. Census Bureau is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Israeli Doctors Take on 
Life-threatening Superbugs

NAAMA BARAK ISRAEL21C.ORG

Professor Nathalie 
Balaban

HEBREW UNIVERSITY