Harvard startup creating a new class of antibiotics
Kinvard Bio co-founder Ben Tresco inspects a colony of drug-resistant bacteria. Health Harvard startup creating a new class of antibiotics Compounds show promise against drug-resistant infections, diseases Kirsten Mabry Harvard Correspondent February 25, 2025 7 min read When penicillin, the first antibiotic approved for widespread use, became available in the 1940s, The New York Times reported it as “the most powerful germ killer ever discovered.” In 1945, many of the scientists involved in developing it were awarded a Nobel Prize for its significant impact on medicine. Humans had entered the antibiotic age, in which they could survive any number of infections and illnesses that had once been fatal. But today, the picture has become much more complicated. Antibiotics work by binding to or harming different parts of a germ’s structure. Penicillin, for example, binds to a part of the bacterial cell wall and degrades it. But germs are smart, and over time they can develop resistance mechanisms — like...