![]() Then, the researchers created the most promising candidates in the lab. The tool examined these molecules in our ancestors’ genomes and predicted which ones might be successful antibiotics for living humans. Many organisms make bits of proteins called peptides that can defend against microbes. To do so, the researchers used a machine learning tool to look at the proteins in modern humans and our closest extinct relatives, Neanderthals and Denisovans. “We’re motivated by the notion of bringing back molecules from the past to address problems that we have today,” de la Fuente tells Nature News’ Saima Sidik. Instead, the researchers suggest creating new antibiotics from molecules that once protected now-extinct organisms could help defend against illness in people alive now. And it’s a problem with a high death toll: Drug-resistant infections could kill ten million people annually by 2050, according to a 2019 study. ![]() The overuse of existing antibiotics has led to the evolution of bacteria that aren’t stymied by the typical treatments, per Vox. Researchers are trying to uncover new ways of developing drugs to safeguard against new pathogens and emerging antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the authors write in the paper. “Instead of bringing back entire organisms, we thought, could we bring back molecules from the past that could help with problems like antibiotic resistance we see today?” But of course, that has a lot of ethical, ecological and technical problems,” de la Fuente told New Scientist’s Carissa Wong late last year, when the paper had been published as a preprint and had not been peer reviewed. “We’ve always dreamed of bringing back extinct organisms like the dinosaurs, as in Jurassic Park. Like these companies, though, the scientists aren’t taking long-dead molecules from the bodies of Neanderthals and Denisovans and reviving them-instead, they’re using the organisms’ molecules as a blueprint to create new ones in the lab. “So, it’s quite exciting for us.”īy using the word “de-extinction,” the research team calls to mind the efforts of genetics companies working on stunts like “bringing back” the woolly mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger or the dodo. We came up with the term ‘molecular de-extinction’ and this is the first peer-reviewed paper that describes it,” César de la Fuente, a co-author of the study and a bioengineer at the University of Pennsylvania, tells Vox’s Sigal Samuel. as potential candidates for medical use as antimicrobial treatments. In a new paper published late last month in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, researchers say they’ve re-created molecules from Neanderthals and Denisovans that don’t exist in living organisms-a process they’re calling “molecular de-extinction.” These molecules had been identified by A.I. To find a way to fight modern-day pathogens, some scientists are looking to our distant ancestors. ![]()
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