Some notoriously difficult-to-treat infections may not be as resistant to antibiotics as has been thought, according to new research using a microfluidic device that more closely duplicates the fluid flow found in the body than standard cultures.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign research team, led by biochemistry professor Joe Sanfilippo, tested antibiotic agents against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, considered one of the most highly resistant pathogens. They introduced the drugs at varying rates of fluid flow and found that, while the bacteria thrived at no or low fluid flow, the antibiotics killed the bacteria at higher flow rates.

“Anytime you take an antibiotic orally or by IV, it’s not immediately in the place it is supposed to be. It will get there by flowing in the bloodstream. Other fluids move throughout the body as well: in the lungs, the urinary tract, the digestive tract. Yet biologists don’t really study the impact of fluid flow when they study pathogens,” Sanfilippo said.