The group at the University of Tuebingen found that many of the people who don't carry in their nostrils the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, which causes infectious skin diseases and other ailments, instead have the bacteria Staphylococcus lugdunensis, which produces a new class of antibiotics. The scientists named the new antibiotic "lugdunin."

The scientists also tested the new antibiotic on mice and found it could clear bacterial infections on their skin. Tests on mice also showed that lugdunin worked against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, as well.

Professor Mitsuo Kaku of Tohoku University says antibiotics are usually found in soil bacteria, and finding one in the human body is quite significant.

Kaku says new antibiotics are difficult to find, while drug-resistant strains of bacteria continue to emerge.
He says it may become possible to develop new drugs using bacteria from the human body.