NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) — In the hope of preventing gonorrhea from becoming the next antimicrobial-resistant "superbug," researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have been awarded a two-year, $270,000 National Institutes of Health grant to validate a real-time PCR assay for drug resistance and incorporate it into routine gonorrhea testing.

Jeffery Klausner, a professor of medicine and public health at UCLA and a well-known public health researcher in the field of sexually transmitted infections, is spearheading the efforts based on a PCR assay he previously developed.