{"id":153496,"date":"2026-06-01T09:19:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T13:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=153496"},"modified":"2026-06-10T09:48:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T13:48:49","slug":"ucf-scientist-leads-research-to-break-through-harmful-bacterial-fortresses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-scientist-leads-research-to-break-through-harmful-bacterial-fortresses\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Scientist Leads Research to Break Through Harmful Bacterial \u201cFortresses\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

College of Medicine Assistant Professor Renee Fleeman continues to refine a powerful therapy<\/a> for drug-resistant bacteria that pierces the gooey coating that anchors and protects such germs from the drugs we take to kill them.<\/p>\n

Her research<\/a>, backed by a five-year $813,130 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases grant, found that an antimicrobial peptide naturally found in cows weakens the biofilm defenses of Klebsiella pneumoniae <\/em>bacteria and destroys it.<\/p>\n

Now in their fourth year of research, Fleeman and her lab have discovered exactly how the peptide works in findings published in PLOS Pathogens<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur research is very advantageous for healthcare because about 80% of bacterial infections being treated in the clinic are bacteria living in a biofilm state, which makes them resistant to virtually every antibiotic available,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The results represent a critical step to potentially applying this peptide as a therapy and eventually treating patients, as the findings show they can and kill biofilm-embedded bacteria in animal models.<\/p>\n