News: 0180837824

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Researchers Discover Ancient Bacteria Strain That Resists 10 Modern Antibiotics (cnn.com)

(Saturday February 21, 2026 @05:43PM (EditorDavid) from the ice-aged dept.)


CNN reports on a 13,000-year-old glacier in a Romanian cave, where scientists say a bacterial strain they thawed and analyzed " [1]is resistant to 10 modern antibiotics used to treat diseases such as urinary tract infections and tuberculosis."

But there's no evidence the bacteria is harmful to humans, CNN notes, and "The scientists said the insights they have gained from the work may [2]help in the fight against modern superbugs that can't be treated by commonly used antibiotics."

> Analysis of the Psychrobacter SC65A.3 genome revealed 11 genes that are potentially able to kill or stop the growth of other bacteria, fungi and viruses... Matthew Holland, a postdoctoral researcher in medicinal chemistry at the UK's University of Oxford, said that researchers were searching in new and extreme environments, such as ice caves and the seafloor, for biomolecules that could be developed into new antibiotic drugs. He was not involved in the new study. "The team in Romania found this particular bug had resistance to 10 reasonably advanced synthetic antibiotics and that in itself is interesting," he said. "But what they report as well is that it secreted molecules that were able to kill a variety of already resistant, harmful bacteria.

>

> "So the hope is that can we look at the molecules it makes and see if there's the possibility within those molecules to make new antibiotics."



[1] https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/20/science/romania-ice-cave-resistance-antibiotics

[2] https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2025.1713017/full


insert zombie soundtrack (Score:3, Funny)

by invisiblefireball ( 10371234 )

we won't discover til Monday when they don't show up to work that everyone who came into contact with this virus IS ALREADY DEAD

Stop ! (Score:4, Funny)

by greytree ( 7124971 )

Haven't these people watched enough sci-fi to know not to go digging in caves for ancient bacteria.

They'll be launching mission to the dark side of the moon next, and waking up the Nazis. Or poking around in Antarctica. Or Europa.

Watch the movies and learn !

Re: (Score:2)

by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 )

> They'll be launching mission to the dark side of the moon next, and waking up the Nazis.

Easier if they just walk over to DHS and ask for I.C.E. (these days anyway). /s

Re: Stop ! (Score:2)

by OrangeTide ( 124937 )

Brownshirts in 3XL size.

Big Dairy will love it. (Score:2)

by ChunderDownunder ( 709234 )

Try our new probiotic yoghurt, fortified with Romanian cave bacteria.

It grew up tough (Score:3)

by backslashdot ( 95548 )

Modern antibiotics are antibiotic molecules discovered in fungi and other organisms to fight bacteria that may be invading their food source. If this bacteria is resistant to 10 of them one possible way it attained that is it may have faced high selection pressure and been in a place where there was abundant rot. For example, the strain of fungus used to supply the world with penicillin was discovered on a cantaloupe in Illinois by a mold collector nicknamed "Moldy Mary" back in the 1940s. That market must have been gross because the fungus was producing an insane amount of penicillin, presumably required to stay alive.

Re: (Score:2)

by backslashdot ( 95548 )

Here's a reference regarding the Cantaloupe: [1]https://scientificdiscoveries.... [usda.gov]

The biggest irony is that the USDA lab based in Peoria had been searching all over the world for a highly productive strain, but ultimately it was found right there in Peoria. Kind of reminds me of the Wuhan Virology lab and the COVID outbreak seemingly emerging in Wuhan.

[1] https://scientificdiscoveries.ars.usda.gov/tellus/stories/articles/enduring-mystery-moldy-mary

What could go wrong? (Score:2)

by BrendaEM ( 871664 )

Um, kid, stop playing with that. Didn't you learn enough from Covid?

Not the first time for old resistant strains (Score:3)

by Firethorn ( 177587 )

I remember cases of them digging out old bacteria samples from things like old wells, a couple centuries old, not 13k, but still resistant to a raft of modern antibiotics, more than many modern strains.

The easiest explanation is that we got most of our antibiotics by examining molds and such, and it isn't like mold and bacteria haven't been fighting for millennia already. The bacteria probably just encountered something similar enough to the modern synthetic antibiotics and had to adapt.

poor bacteria :-( (Score:3)

by Alworx ( 885008 )

So, you've been frozen for millennia, finally some being comes and thaws you, and brings you back to life only to try and kill you with antibiotics. Hell yeah, I stand with the ancient bacteria!!

You will not be elected to public office this year.