Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation

Lu Gan, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow '07-'09) and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, described the first 3D visualization of the cell-wall structure of bacteria.  They used high-tech microscopy techniques that enabled the scientists to visualize these biological structures at nanometer resolution.  They found that the cell-wall structure is made up of a mesh-like structure of carbohydrates (glycans) and amino-acid peptides.  This structure is targeted by the antibiotic penicillin, blocking a bacterium's ability to grow.  These findings lead to a better understanding of how a bacterium directs its own growth, and how drugs that block that process might work.

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