I – and many other researchers – did not believe they [bacteriocins] could be useful clinically because injecting a “foreign” bacterial protein into a patient is likely to induce a severe immune response that would make the antibiotic inactive. There were therefore gasps of amazement in Beijing at data presented from several animal studies showing this was not the case.

So, is this a case where the theory these experts embraced misled them for a long time so that none of them (until recently) even bothered to try bacteriocins on animals?

I mean, what was the breakthrough here, exactly -- actually trying it on animals, or something else?