The Santa Maria laboratory, led by Dr Khomtchouk, has developed a novel mouse model to study severe chronic ear infections in humans. In this model, we found that the current antibiotic prescribed for this disease reduced bacteria burden during treatment, but just as in humans the biofilm rapidly returned after treatment ceased. We suggest assays for new drug development include outcome measures for microbiological eradication after ending treatment to better assess the potential for infections to rebound in chronic conditions. The model reports bacterial infection in real-time and can be used to further investigate antibiotic failure in humans.

Read the article here: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/33/eabc1828