New Scientist Breaking News - 'Lego' approach thwarts anthrax toxin: "Complex nanoscale structures designed to bind and neutralise anthrax toxins have successfully protected rats from the deadly illness in the laboratory. The researchers say their novel approach may yield life-saving drugs to fight more common infections such as cholera, and possibly HIV.

The team used a special statistical analysis to design molecules which bind 10,000 times more strongly to the toxins produced by anthrax than conventional compounds.

“It’s the method that’s the important thing,” says Jeremy Mogridge of the University of Toronto, Canada. He says that, to his knowledge, no one else has ever applied this approach in the real world. “There have been theoretical models but no one has tested it for therapeutic purposes.”"