Alas, after more than 3 decades of research on antimicrobial peptides, UCLA professor Robert Lehrer, M.D. and his team identify an antibiotic that promises to be at least as effective as penicillin and vancomycin. Isolated from the fungus Pseudoplectania nigrella, the antimicrobial peptide is called plectasin the first defensin ever found in fungi.

Using recombinant technology, plectasin was produced at a very high, and commercially viable, yield and purity. In laboratory trials, the recombinant plectasin showed potent broad-spectrum activity Gram-positive bacteria, particularly against the microorganism that causes pneumonia, Streptococcus pneumoniae, including clinical strains now known to be resistant to conventional antibiotics. Additonally, it showed extremely low toxicity in mice.

If proven safe and effective in humans, could be on the market by 2012, said Lehrer. The research was carried out and funded by Novozymes, who owns the patent for the discovery.

The above research is published in the Oct 13 issue of Nature. Click here for the Forbes report.