Podcast Episode Details

Thanks, Neanderthals: How our ancient relatives could help find new antibiotics

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Episode 972

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Antibiotics have changed the world. They've made it possible to treat diseases that used to mean anything from discomfort to death. But no new classes of antibiotics have made it to the market since the 1980s. What if humans' closest, ancient relatives held the answer to antibiotic resistance?

Some scientists want to discover new antibiotics using machine learning ... and some very, very old relatives of humans. Host Aaron Scott talks to César de la Fuente about using computers to discover the first therapeutic molecules in extinct organisms.

Have a question? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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Published on 2 years, 2 months ago