Scripps Research study reveals new approach for combating resting bacteria Blocking long phosphate molecules could eventually help treat chronic infections in which slow-growing bacteria evade typical antibiotics.
April 11, 2024
LA JOLLA, CA Most disease-causing bacteria are known for their speed: In mere minutes, they can double their population, quickly making a person sick. But just as dangerous as this rapid growth can be a bacterium's resting state, which helps the pathogen evade antibiotics and contributes to severe chronic infections in the lungs and blood, within wounds, and on the surfaces of medical devices.
Now, Scripps Research scientists have discovered how long chains of molecules called polyphosphates (polyP) are needed for bacteria to slow down movements within cells and let them enter this resting state. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on April 02, 2024, could eventually lead to new ways of treating chronic infections in which typical antibiotics aren't effective.
Many current antibiotics block bacterial growth, but bacteria spend a lot of their time not growing, says Lisa Racki, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research and senior author of the new paper. We really need new and creative strategies for targeting bacteria's slow-growing and non-growing phases.
Researchers have long known that bacteria can survive for especially long periods of time when they stop growing, entering a dormant and energy-saving state. They also knew that when bacteria enter this resting state, they use valuable energy to produce polyP strands, which form large clumps inside their cells. But scientists had been historically unsure about the purpose of polyP.
To study polyP, Racki and her collaborators turned to Pseudomonas aeruginosa, bacteria that can cause pneumonia and blood infections in people who are hospitalized or have weakened immune systems. One of the reasons P. aeruginosa can be so hard to treat is that it forms biofilms tightly joined, slimy communities of bacteria, many of which are in a resting state and can evade typical antibiotics.
When P. aeruginosa is starved of nitrogen one of the key nutrients it needs for growth it produces lots of polyP. In the new work, Racki and her collaborators at EPFL and Caltech discovered that a mutant unable to make polyP cannot enter its resting state. To better understand why this happens and the consequences, the researchers genetically engineered P. aeruginosa to make small, labeled particles that let them track how molecules within the bacteria were moving around.
What we found is that when you get rid of polyP, everything in the cell moves too much, says Racki. The cells are partying when they should be taking a break.
When starved of most nutrients, P. aeruginosa slows the movement of materials within its interior and stops dividing. But without nitrogen and polyP, the bacteria keep moving materials around at top-speed, become bigger, loosen their genetic material and continue dividing.
Racki's team concluded that polyP is usually responsible for helping P. aeruginosa and likely other bacterial species slow down. It also leads them to hypothesize that preventing cells from producing polyP could keep them active and make them more susceptible to some antibiotics.
This not only helps point in possible directions for treating pathogenic bacteria, but also reveals answers for fundamental questions about how things diffuse throughout a bacterial cell, says Racki.
Racki and her lab are now planning more experiments to better probe exactly why cells cannot slow their interior movements without polyP, and whether blocking the bacterial production of polyP could be an effective tactic to treat some infections.
In addition to Racki, authors of the study, Polyphosphate affects cytoplasmic and chromosomal dynamics in nitrogen-starved Pseudomonas aeruginosa , are Sofia Magkiriadou, Willi Leopold Stepp and Suliana Manley of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL); and Dianne Newman of Caltech.
This work was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health (DP2-GM- 784-140918), the European Research Council (ERC CoG 819823), the Swiss National Science Foundation (182429), and the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Fellowship.
Infectious Diseases Racki, Lisa
North America Stories
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Liberty University on why broadcast technology isn't just a technical invest...
08/05/2026
COW Jobs: UGC, On-Camera Video Content
Brie Clayton May 7, 2026
0 Comments
UGC, On-Camera Video Content
April 17, 2026Documentary Editor - US,......
07/05/2026
Multi-year partnership positions Victory+ as a free home for Dallas Cowboys orig...
07/05/2026
From sideline reporting to directing and producing, the talented sophomore is building a well-rounded foundation for a career in live sports production
In the ...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital has received two Future Best of Show awards at NAB Show 2026. The COBALT blueCORE platform was recognized by TV Tech, and the COBALT PACIFIC ULL-...
07/05/2026
ESPN analyst Mina Kimes will host the televised semifinals and finals of the 202...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI, the global film streaming platform, has selected Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner. Bitmovin's encoding infrastru...
07/05/2026
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and the U.S. Soccer Federation have announced...
07/05/2026
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) and Victory have announced a regional broadcast partnership bringing live match coverage to fans across the greater Los Angeles...
07/05/2026
Spiideo has announced the launch of AI Highlights inside Spiideo Play, its automated sports production platform. AI Highlights combines video, event data, audio...
07/05/2026
Leostream Corporation has announced a unified remote access ecosystem for high-p...
07/05/2026
The Atlanta Dream has partnered with Victory to stream all locally broadcast Dream games for free, expanding the team's digital distribution strategy and g...
07/05/2026
Riedel Communications has announced the appointment of Marc Engroff as Chief Fin...
07/05/2026
SES and ARD, Germany's largest public broadcasting network, have announced a long-term extension of their satellite distribution partnership through 2039. U...
07/05/2026
UpLight Technologies delivers a flexible video and lighting system for a new televised sportLaunching the Pro Cheer League required more than creating a compell...
07/05/2026
Full Day Productions and GSE Worldwide have announced Spikes Under the Lights, a...
07/05/2026
Two multi-role L3Harris products - the Red Wolf launched effects vehicle and SK...
07/05/2026
L3Harris will be developing key features of a secure and resilient digital infra...
07/05/2026
Alysa Liu and Shohei Ohtani Help Drive Viewership as 91 of the Top 100 Broadcast...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show
Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing
Cobal...
07/05/2026
Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...
07/05/2026
Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...
07/05/2026
Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next.
...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...
07/05/2026
At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...
07/05/2026
Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision
Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...
07/05/2026
Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...
07/05/2026
Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...
07/05/2026
Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...
07/05/2026
Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...
07/05/2026
Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...
07/05/2026
At Broadcast Asia 2026 (Stand 5H3 8), LiveU is redefining live production with its most powerful IP-video EcoSystem to date built to help broadcasters and con...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects
Graham Quince May 6, 2026
0 Comments
The Time Tunnel from Doctor Who titles is one of th...
07/05/2026
AI will help build the energy it needs.
That's the case U.S. Energy Secreta...
07/05/2026
Back to All News
Red Chillies Entertainment and Netflix Present the Trailer of ...
07/05/2026
Less typing, more tanking.
Faster logins mean more time in the gaming action - and this week provides GeForce NOW members with a smoother path straight into th...
06/05/2026
Gravity Media Chief RF Communications Engineer Glenn Willems uses Wisycom RF over Fiber and wireless solutions across major cycling events and international mar...
06/05/2026
A Sennheiser Spectera module is now available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, enabling direct integration of Spectera with the two software platforms. The mo...
06/05/2026
Ted Turner, the visionary media entrepreneur whose appetite for disruption helpe...
Scripps Research study reveals new approach for combating resting bacteria Blocking long phosphate molecules could eventually help treat chronic infections in which slow-growing bacteria evade typical antibiotics. 
