Experimental vaccine forces bacteria down an evolutionary dead end

In the world of bacteria and viruses, drugs and vaccines are the environmental pressures that they must overcome. And they do it with frustrating ease, quickly finding ways around the attacks and then swapping those genes like trading cards. The end result is the constant looming threat of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” that render our best drugs ineffective.

So the researchers at ETH Zurich set out to turn this strength into a weakness. Rather than developing a drug that kills bacteria, the team wanted to find a way to funnel its evolution down a path where it becomes weaker, and less of a problem for the host.