Immunization is one way to shift the balance. Current vaccines take time to make, are slow to take effect, and cover one pathogen at a time. As I mentioned earlier, a key strategy is to target functions that are essential for the pathogen, and that are shared by many different pathogens. Here are some examples. They found a number of genes that had never before been identified.
Some functions are also essential to pathogen reproduction and survival.
This project at Stanford University is targeting an important housekeeping gene, found in the BW threat agent Brucella and a number of other pathogens. The researchers are now testing candidate compounds to block this protein. These compounds would represent an entirely new class of antibiotics. Our newest thrust is Genomic Sequencing. Libraries of DNA sequences of important pathogens are under development in a number of places.