Scientists Discover Possible New Antibiotic in Dirt Researchers at Rockefeller University and they discovered compounds called malacidins. The study in Nature Microbiology says this family on antibiotics could fight hard-to-treat infections like MRSA. Proof of this came from a test conducted on rats infected with MRSA, and the soil's compounds eliminated the infection in the rats' skin wounds. According to BBC, drug-resistant diseases claim up to 700,000 lives a year, so researchers are constantly seeking new methods in the antibiotics arms race.