No Salt For Your Wounds, Just Algae For Your Flu: Antibiotic Discoveries in Red Sea Algae

In times where we’re prone to antibiotic-resistance mass hysteria any day now, an Egyptian scientist saves the day. Or at the very least, has illuminated a path to victory.

Dr. Asmaa Sayed Abdel-Galil Mahmoud Al-Jaafari, the region’s first female to obtain a PhD in medical biotechnology at the Italian University of Eastern Piedmont, has done groundbreaking work and research to find and extract antibiotics from Red Sea algae in Egypt with the help of Japanese and Italian research teams.

The research sets many new milestones: the first of its kind internationally, it makes use of the qualities that enable algae to live in harsh environments - which are typically salty with extremely high temperatures - for antibiotic purposes. Similarly, Dr. Al-Jaafari was even able to innovate a new microbiological technique to do so. 

Similar research that have brought about the same results from a type of plant that grows in South Africa - which was also performed by Dr. Asmaa - will be used to make new antibiotics for the pharmaceutical market. 

The researcher has shared that the solution to antibiotic resistance relies on constantly trying to discover and produce new strains to overcome the current commercial antibiotic market, which is what her research tries to accomplish.