Massachusetts, Antibiotics are usually used for attacks against bacteria including Escherichia coli, or E.coli bacteria. But a study for the first time actually using E.coli as materials for antibiotics.

Researchers from Tufts University School of Engineering for the first time managed to make the antibiotic erythromycin A and two variations of antibiotics with the source of E.coli bacteria.

Making E.coli as an antibiotic source material offers way more cost effective to make erythromycin A and new drugs that will combat the growing incidence of resistant pathogens (immune) antibiotics.

Equally important, the production technique of E.coli platform offers many opportunities for future generations and other natural products with complex biosynthesis route.

“We now have been able to create E. coli as a viable choice for the production of erythromycin A and platforms that directed production of erythromycin analogue,” said lead researcher Blaine Pfeifer, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Tufts, Massachusetts.

Erythromycin A is a potent weapon in the treatment of bacterial infections.Saccharopolyspora erythraea bacteria found in the soil, naturally produce several variants of erythromycin.

But because of the many challenges associated with the technique using Saccharopolyspora erythraea, researchers hope to reach full production of erythromycin A using E.coli.

The findings, published in Chemistry and Biology report 24 November 2010 edition.

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