Researchers at GW may have found a new way to attack staph infections and deadly flesh-eating diseases.

Lance Price, a professor, and Cindy Liu, a visiting scholar, both of the department of environmental and occupational health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, were part of a research team that has identified a kind of bacteria that can push out certain nose infections, including staph infections that can sometimes lead to diseases like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. The study was published in the journal “Science Advances” last month.

Price said in a release that staph infections often reside in the nose but typically don’t affect the rest of the body and don’t raise any concerns for their hosts.

“Staph is an asymptomatic colonizer. It can live on us and spread silently to other people without ever showing any signs,” Price said in the release. “But once there is an opportunity — if you get sick or have a break in your skin — these bacteria can infect you.”

The “good” bacteria is Dolosigranulum, which can be used in a probiotic that could be inserted into patients’ noses to kill the infection, Price said.

Liu, a medical doctor, said in the past, people had considered all bacteria to have negative effects on people. But as research pushes on, there has been more proof that certain bacteria can help fight infections.

Price and Liu said the infection-fighting bacteria could help prevent staph and MRSA infections in people who are at high risk to contract them.

“The less bacteria you have, the less likely you’re going to come up positive on culture,” Price said in the release. “Our findings show that those who carry low amounts of staph, which are often women, could be unknown reservoirs of staph and spread it to others who can carry more.”