{"id":153496,"date":"2026-06-01T09:19:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T13:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496//?p=153496"},"modified":"2026-06-10T09:48:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T13:48:49","slug":"ucf-scientist-leads-research-to-break-through-harmful-bacterial-fortresses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496//ucf-scientist-leads-research-to-break-through-harmful-bacterial-fortresses/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496//","title":{"rendered":"UCF Scientist Leads Research to Break Through Harmful Bacterial /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496/u201cFortresses/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496/u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

College of Medicine Assistant Professor Renee Fleeman continues to refine a powerful therapy for drug-resistant bacteria that pierces the gooey coating that anchors and protects such germs from the drugs we take to kill them./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496/n

Her research, backed by a five-year $813,130 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases grant, found that an antimicrobial peptide naturally found in cows weakens the biofilm defenses of Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria and destroys it./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496/n

Now in their fourth year of research, Fleeman and her lab have discovered exactly how the peptide works in findings published in PLOS Pathogens./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496/u201cOur research is very advantageous for healthcare because about 80% of bacterial infections being treated in the clinic are bacteria living in a biofilm state, which makes them resistant to virtually every antibiotic available,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496/u201d she says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496/n

The results represent a critical step to potentially applying this peptide as a therapy and eventually treating patients, as the findings show they can and kill biofilm-embedded bacteria in animal models./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/153496/n