Researchers have just identified a powerful new antibiotic – in a significant discovery made not by breaking new ground, but by revisiting familiar territory.

The compound, pre-methylenomycin C lactone, was discovered by a team from Warwick University in the UK and Monash University in Australia. While it's never been spotted before, it comes from a type of bacteria that scientists have studied for decades .

Potentially, it could help fight bacteria that have become increasingly resistant to modern treatments – and it's actually an intermediate chemical that's created during the process of making another antibiotic, methylenomycin A .

"Remarkably, the bacterium that makes methylenomycin A and pre-methylenomycin C lactone – – is a model antibiotic-producing species that's been st

See Full Page