NORWICH, ENGLAND ¨C Pampering leafcutter ants with fragrant rose petals and fresh oranges may seem an unlikely way to rescue modern medicine, but scientists at a lab in eastern England think it is well worth trying.
As the world cries out for new antibiotics, researchers at the John Innes Centre (JIC) in Norwich are also taking a bet on bacteria extracted from the stomachs of giant stick insects and cinnabar caterpillars with a taste for highly toxic plants.
Their work is part of a new way of thinking in the search for superbug-killing drugs: turning back to nature in the hope that places as extreme as insects¡¯ insides, the ocean depths and the driest deserts may throw up chemical novelties and lead to new drugs.
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