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| '''[[User:Robert Ovadia|Robert]] 18:22, 20 February 2009 (EST)''': I know our topic is energy efficiency, but I was recently introduced to staph infections the other day - my mother is a nurse and she was telling me about it. Staph infections are caused by the strain, Staphylococcus aureus - most commonly caught when people don't wash their hands.<br>One might argue that the body's defense would be able to destroy them, such as neutrophils. However, the bacterium has an orangish pigment that has antioxidant properties (http://jem.rupress.org/cgi/content/full/202/2/209) thus protecting it from the oxidative species neutrophils use. In addition, some variants of staphylococcus are resistant to penicillin - it produces Beta-lactamase - making it difficult to target.<br>There are papers of phages (http://aac.asm.org/cgi/content/full/49/3/1220) that can target the strain. I wasn't able to find what kind of phages were used, but maybe we can engineer a phage to not only prevent the expression of the gene, but have the strain accomplish other useful functions (whatever that may be). I am not too sure how this will be more effective than current treatments, but what do you guys think?
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