In his lecture titled \u201cNew Antibiotics,\u201d Bode explained that many of our most important drugs\u2014such as antibiotics, immunosuppressants for transplants, and chemotherapy drugs for cancer\u2014did not originally come from chemistry labs, but are produced by microorganisms. In nature, bacteria typically use these substances as defensive weapons against competitors. <\/p>\n
He went on to explain that bacteria produce these complex active compounds via specialized molecular assembly lines (known as non-ribosomal peptide synthetases or polyketide synthetases). You can think of these enzymes as Lego bricks or a construction set in which various proteins assemble chemical building blocks step by step. <\/p>\n
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More and more pathogens are becoming resistant<\/strong><\/p>\n Concerns have been raised that more and more pathogens are becoming resistant to conventional drugs, meaning it is no longer enough to simply search for new compounds in nature. This is precisely where Helge Bode\u2019s research comes in: His research group decodes the genetic building blocks of bacteria, breaks down the individual \u201cLego bricks,\u201d and reassembles them in the lab. By reprogramming these bacterial \u201cassembly lines,\u201d they create entirely new, artificial molecules that have never existed in nature\u2014tailor-made antibiotics to combat resistant pathogens. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tailored antibiotics are urgently needed<\/strong><\/p>\n Bode pointed out that these new antibiotics are urgently needed, as people are becoming increasingly resistant to existing antibiotics\u2014not least because of the widespread use of antibiotics in factory farming.<\/p>\n Following the one-hour lecture, the audience asked numerous interesting and thought-provoking questions, prompting Prof. Bode to expressly praise the Steinm\u00fchlen students for their ability to concentrate and their interest.<\/p>\n The presentation was part of the \u201cMicrobes@School\u201d lecture series initiated by the Central Hesse Student Research Center.<\/p>\n (Gem) \/\/ <\/em>Photos: MPI Marburg, Geisel<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prof. Dr. Helge Bode, director of the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, drew an interested audience during his recent lecture at the Steinm\u00fchle. In attendance were 85 students in grades 12 and 13 who are taking biology as an advanced course, numerous students enrolled in the introductory course, and participants in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":95047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-stem"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/09\/20260915_153450-1030x773.jpeg\")
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