Starter comment: Prior studies of terpenes have shown them to be resilient to the development of bacterial resistance. These new derived compounds demonstrate efficacy against gram positive Staph epidermidis, Staph aureus, and two Enterococci in vitro. Compounds do not require destruction of trees to harvest.

Link to original study: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/12/7/1202

Starter comment: This new technique uses glass beads to break the membranes of larger human cells in a sample, while maintaining the integrity of smaller bacterial cells. This allows the use of enzymes to wash away the human cell contents, leaving only bacterial cells when DNA testing is performed. The idea is to make clinical testing and characterization of human gut microbiome samples faster and more precise.

Link to study (pay walled): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-023-02025-4