MRSA vaccine breakthrough for Trinity team

Trinity College scientists believe they have identified specific cells in the immune system that may help in the development of a viable vaccine for MRSA.

The immunologists are hopeful their discovery will pave the way for a groundbreaking vaccine that will see doctors prevent blood stream infections caused by bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, rather than depend on curing the illness with medicines that are becoming less effective as infections become more resistant to antibiotics.

Staphylococcus aureus resistance to the main antibiotic used for treatment, methicillin, was first reported in the 1960s and antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus — or MRSA — increased steadily in hospitals in the decades that followed.