The ultimate vision is pretty fantastical: A variety of synthetically engineered bacteria working together to diagnose – and even secrete proteins to treat – various inflammatory conditions or other immune-associated diseases. But researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School have taken another step along the path toward that goal.

Scientists from the University of Cambridge have reported that a high proportion of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains were resistant to penicillin-class antibiotics, the beta-lactams, when they were treated with a combination of penicillins and beta-lactamase inhibitors. 

A research team at the University of New Mexico (UNM), Albuquerque, is moving forward with the development of a vaccine against tauopathies, a neurodegenerative class of diseases that includes Alzheimer's disease, but while promising in the lab, it could take a decade to get an actual vaccine to market.