But gentamicin's severe side effects of deafness and kidney damage make it undesirable for long-term treatment in children.

FORBES: Stopping the Nonsense

The most common cause of the loss of this function in the U.S. is side effects from the powerful antibiotic gentamicin.

FORBES: Magazine Article

In 1996 David Bedwell, a microbiologist at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, found that an antibiotic, gentamicin, could make the body's gene-reading software skip past the misplaced period in the gene sentence and keep on reading.

FORBES: Stopping the Nonsense