The Biggest Medical Innovation Since Antibiotics?

Last updated on August 21, 2011

A group of MIT researchers have apparently developed a drug that apparently has the potential to destroy any and all viral infections:

“Scientists at MIT are developing a new drug that has the potential to revolutionize medicine with its ability to treat almost any viral infection.

A team of researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory has designed a drug that can identify cells that have been infected by any type of virus, then kill those cells to terminate the infection, reports MIT news.

The drug will supposedly fight viruses as effectively as penicillin treats bacteria.”

If this pans out, this could be the biggest medical innovation in a long time. The drug, called DRACO, apparently works by pushing infected cells to suicide, and I have even seen speculation online about how this could even cure AIDS.

Over at orgtheory, Fabio Rojas explains why the publication of this discovery in PLoS One may well constitute a landmark event in academic publishing.