Although other experts have created similar reconstructions, this is the first to reproduce the exact chemical and three-dimensional structure of a living virus, which could pave the way for research into an alternative to antibiotics, and reduce the threat of bacterial resistance to certain drugs.

The research used existing data from germ structures measured by electron cryomicroscopy and computer modeling, which took nearly three years despite using supercomputers in the UK and Japan.

This achievement will make it possible to investigate biological processes that until now could not be examined in depth, such as finding out how a bacteriophage, which is a type of virus that infects bacteria, kills a specific disease-causing bacterium.

So far, it is not known how this happens, but this new method of creating more accurate models will open up new ways of research into the use of bacteriophages to kill bacteria that are potentially deadly to humans, the publication said.

This could lead to more targeted treatments against diseases, which are currently fought with antibiotics, and thus help curb the growing threat posed to people by the resistance of microorganisms to antibiotics.

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