Fagpressenytt

...(AMPs produced by bacteria), and because I am interested in the field of antimicrobial drugs in general, this conference was very stimulating to attend. As expected, there were lots of interesting talks presented so those I have recounted here is only a small excerpt of all presentations during these days. Thanks to NBS for giving me this opportunity to participate in this very interesting and exciting conference. Ileft Oslo Wednesday morning and was supposed to end up in Leipzig early afternoon the same day after a short transit in Frankfurt. This would give me plenty of time to reach the Fraunhofer Institute before the first session. Sadly I missed the first day of this conference due to a security breach at Frankfurt airport. A woman was running with her bag through the security and hence all domestic flights got cancelled. All luggages needed to be checked so it should not be expected before the next afternoon. The (delayed) train brought me to Leipzig and my first impression of, as I would come to see it, this beautiful city was my hours spent at the main train station shopping for toiletries and some clothes for the next day.

Robert (Bob) Hancock, a wellknown name in this field, opened the Thursday session (day two) and spoke about AMPs as alternatives and adjuncts to antibiotics. There is an urgent need for new antibiotics or good alternatives due to the increase in multidrug-resistant infections worldwide. He focused on biofilms, which are actually responsible for over 65% of infections. Because biofilms have an alternative multicellular growth state and often consist of multiple species of bacteria, it is much more difficult to attack and kill these bacteria effectively. A new class of peptides named anti-biofilm peptides act against these types of biofilms (including major clinically relevant Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria).

Karl Lohner (Gras, Austria) presented a synthetic peptide that neutralizes endotoxins, such as LPS (