Stanford University undergraduate students develop a biotech start-up that will aid in combating the increasing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The most recent evidence of the dramatic amount of increase in the antibiotic resistant bacteria signaled an alarm to Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control. He urged that immediate action must be taken before it's too late for the antibiotic functions.

Sadly the concern about the antibiotic production has often been neglected by pharmaceutical industries. Pharmaceutical companies often look at the low profit brought about by the low pricing and the rapid increase in the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Thanks to the undergraduate students of Stanford University, they have decided to design antibiotics that will one day be able to fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This project is supported by the Stanford's Chemistry, Engineering & Medicine for Human Health (ChEM-H) institute new research program.

The team primarily focused on Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the two highest mortality rated bacteria. These two types of bacteria were also proven to be resistant to almost all types of antibiotics.

The project started in October 2015 with two teams of undergraduate students entering an entrepreneurship program and focusing on health challenges. The teams invited by Chaitan Khosla, professor of chemistry and of chemical engineering and director of ChEM-H, were mentored by Cameron Gray, a scientist-turned-investor and Zach Sweeney, Stanford alumni and biotech veteran.

In just a few months time, the students were able to present their plan to the faculty, capitalists and scientists and received a $10,000 grant for the testing of their proposal. The project is still on its way to completion but the mentors were impressed with its development over a short period of time and are optimistic enough to see the defeat of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the near future, Stanford News reported.

World Health Organization, on the other hand, is working closely with different health organizations globally in order to promote spread prevention of the antibiotic resistant bacteria worldwide, World Health Organization reported.

Topics Bacteria, Stanford University, Undergrads