Bacteria beware: MIT graduate invents knock-out punch for antibiotic resistance

Timothy Lu, a graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, is the 2008 winner of the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, an award that recognizes students at MIT who have demonstrated remarkable inventiveness. Lu has invented processes that promise to enhance the effectiveness of antibiotics and help eradicate "slime layers" of bacteria known as biofilms. These processes will help combat bacterial infections, such as those caused by E. coli (Escherichia coli) biofilms and MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Photo courtesy of the Lemelson-MIT Program