Towards an influenza virus glycan interaction map (Glycointeractome). This project will use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to map carbohydrate interaction used by the virus to cause infection and spread. This information will provide new direction in anti-influenza drug discovery.
Development of small molecule primary sulfonamides as new drugs for malaria. Malaria is a major global health threat, causing approximately 800,000 deaths annually. Lives can be saved if patients are treated. The use of current antimalarial drugs is limited by drug resistance, low activity and poor safety. This project investigates the effectiveness of a new class of molecule as a safe drug treatment option to kill malaria parasites.
Fragment based screening to deliver drugs targeting tuberculosis and the gametocyte and liver stages of Plasmodium. This project will identify natural products that bind to critical proteins in malaria and tuberculosis to discover new ways to treat these diseases.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100226
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$424,000.00
Summary
Advanced molecular discovery and characterisation facility. Natural product drug discovery in Australia requires access to high throughput functional assays to guide the separation and of novel bioactives with therapeutic potential. By establishing the advanced molecular discovery and characterisation facility in an academic environment across two institutions, research programs in early drug lead discovery and characterisation will be accelerated. It will provide unique capabilities not curren ....Advanced molecular discovery and characterisation facility. Natural product drug discovery in Australia requires access to high throughput functional assays to guide the separation and of novel bioactives with therapeutic potential. By establishing the advanced molecular discovery and characterisation facility in an academic environment across two institutions, research programs in early drug lead discovery and characterisation will be accelerated. It will provide unique capabilities not currently available in Australia, and help Australian researchers remain internationally competitive in breakthrough science and frontier technologies. The research enabled by this facility will lead to development of new drug candidates by the emerging Australian biotechnology industry.Read moreRead less
Translating pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data to better design new drugs for the treatment of Trypanosoma cruzi infection. New drugs to treat T. cruzi infection are urgently needed, however their design has been hampered by an incomplete understanding of complex host-parasite interactions, inadequate in vitro and in vivo tools to rigorously define activity during drug discovery, and a poor appreciation of concentration/effect relationships. This project aims to develop new and much needed ....Translating pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data to better design new drugs for the treatment of Trypanosoma cruzi infection. New drugs to treat T. cruzi infection are urgently needed, however their design has been hampered by an incomplete understanding of complex host-parasite interactions, inadequate in vitro and in vivo tools to rigorously define activity during drug discovery, and a poor appreciation of concentration/effect relationships. This project aims to develop new and much needed in vitro methods to better define the kinetic and dynamic activity of new drug candidates, and will provide a rational basis for translating this information into lengthy animal models of T. cruzi infection. The outcome aims to be rationally designed drug candidates that are available in a shorter period of time and are suitable for further development.Read moreRead less
Metals in biocatalysis. Metals and enzymes are essential for the chemistry of life. This project will aim to garner the potential of metal-dependent enzymes to develop new drugs against osteoporosis, combat the spread of antibiotics resistance and optimise some of these enzymes to detoxify pesticide-polluted environments, thus contributing to global health and food security.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE120100071
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$290,000.00
Summary
Chemi–biology computational platform for lead discovery in infectious disease. A challenge in fighting infectious disease is in finding new bioactive compounds. This facility will provide a high performance computational environment designed to accelerate the discovery of quality compounds for use in anti-infective medicine.
Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Australian Sponge Metabolites. The development of concise and flexible syntheses of Australian marine natural products and analogues of ecological/therapeutic significance will emerge. Such activities will lead to the identification and evaluation of molecular entities of value in managing marine environments and help to enhance chemical synthesis capacity in Australia.
Overcoming antibiotic resistance: rapid discovery of new antibacterial drug targets using chemical proteomics. The prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacteria in the community is a critical public health issue and there is an urgent and compelling need for new antibiotics with novel modes of action to combat these deadly superbugs. While antibiotics from nature have long been a mainstay of the pharmaceutical industry, their development as drugs can be challenging as their cellular targets and mod ....Overcoming antibiotic resistance: rapid discovery of new antibacterial drug targets using chemical proteomics. The prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacteria in the community is a critical public health issue and there is an urgent and compelling need for new antibiotics with novel modes of action to combat these deadly superbugs. While antibiotics from nature have long been a mainstay of the pharmaceutical industry, their development as drugs can be challenging as their cellular targets and modes of action are frequently unknown. In this project, innovative chemical proteomics approaches will be used to rapidly identify and characterise the cellular targets and modes of action of both newly discovered and historic antibiotic natural products, thereby overcoming this bottleneck and accelerating the development of next-generation antibiotics.Read moreRead less
Screening platforms for malaria drug discovery: identification of new therapeutics. Innovative image based technologies will be developed to identify molecules which stop malaria parasite growth and its transmission to the mosquito host. As more resistance is emerging against the current drugs of choice, new molecules acting through different mechanisms are urgently needed.