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
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia backs audience-led filmmaking with new insight-driven initiativ...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia refines guidelines for Narrative Content Development and Docume...
02/07/2026
Maxon Autograph: Introduction to working with Tables
Simon Ubsdell July 1, 2026
0 Comments
An overview of Autograph's ridiculously powerful tables...
02/07/2026
Boston Conservatory's Soir e Breaks Records to Fund Student Scholarships The event achieved 127 percent of its fundraising goal in an evening celebrating ...
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. 
