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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Antibiotic resistance is commonly viewed as universally costly, regardless of which bacterial cells express resistance. Here, we explore an opposing logic, where resistance in commensal bacterial can lead to reductions in pathogen density and improved outcomes on both the patient and public health scale. Using a mathematical model of commensal-pathogen interactions, we define conditions for beneficial resistance, highlighting the importance of reciprocal ecological inhibition to maximize the benefits of resistance. We argue that by identifying benefits as well as costs of resistances in human microbiomes, we can transform resistance management from a minimization to an optimization problem.
