Understanding The Role Of O-linked Glycosylation In Burkholderia Cenocepica For Host Survival Using Proteomic Approaches
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$222,004.00
Summary
The bacteria Burkholderia cenocepecia (Bc) is a common infection of Cystic Fibrosis suffers in Australia. ~20% CF patients infected with Bc will die due to lung failure. Due to this high death rate there is an urgent need to understand how Bc survives and causes disease in the host. This grant aims to understand how the attachment of sugars, a process known as glycosylation, affects the ability of Bc to survive in mammalian cells.
Improving The Understanding And Management Of Important Human Bacterial Infections
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$204,196.00
Summary
This project will focus on two important bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus (Golden Staph), and Enterococcus faecium, both causes of serious infections in hospital and community patients in Australia. Using new technologies, including whole genome sequencing, this project will lead to significant advances in understanding how these bacteria evolve, spread and cause disease. This will lead to new strategies for prevention and management of infections caused by these important bacteria.
Molecular Mechanisms Of Persistence Of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$398,142.00
Summary
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB. It infects about third of all people in the world and kills several million people each year. People with active TB spread the mycobacteria in aerosols from their breath. When another person inhales an infected aerosol the mycobacteria enter their lungs and establish a new infection. During the course of infection M. tuberculosis is exposed to a variety of harsh environments inside the lungs which normally kill other bacte ....Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB. It infects about third of all people in the world and kills several million people each year. People with active TB spread the mycobacteria in aerosols from their breath. When another person inhales an infected aerosol the mycobacteria enter their lungs and establish a new infection. During the course of infection M. tuberculosis is exposed to a variety of harsh environments inside the lungs which normally kill other bacteria. M. tuberculosis is able to survive and adapt to those harsh environments. M. tuberculosis has an especially thick and tough cell wall which protects it. M. tuberculosis can adapt to the environments it encounters in a patient by changing their cell walls. The wall also protects mycobacteria from chemicals so it is resistant to many common antibiotics. There are some drugs to treat TB however M. tuberculosis is building up resistance to those drugs so we need to find new ones We will determine how mycobacteria synthesize their special cell wall and how they adapt during an infection. If we know how the details of how M. tuberculosis protects itself then we can find potential weakness which could be targets for the development of new drugs to treat TB.Read moreRead less
Investigating The Antimicrobial Activity Of Zinc At The Host-pneumococcal Interface
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$318,768.00
Summary
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a human-only bacterium that is responsible for killing more than one million people every year. This project will analyse how the human immune system fights this bacterium, and subsequently, how the bacteria manages to subvert these attacks and survive in the human host. This will provide crucial information for developing new drugs against this pathogen, in an attempt to combat the ever-increasing problem of antibiotic resistance.
Acinetobacter Baumannii Virulence From A Regulatory Perspective: The Role Of Two Component Signal Transduction Systems
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$608,731.00
Summary
Acinetobacter baumannii is becoming a significant pathogen in the hospital and more recently in the community. It is very resistant to removal from surfaces and upon entering the host is almost impossible to treat with currently available antibiotics. It causes a wide range of disease states from wound infections and pneumonia to bacteraemia; little is known of this process. This research will increase our understanding of the disease process, providing possible treatment options in the future.
Capsule Synthesis And Tyrosine Phosphorylation In Streptococcus Pneumoniae
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$587,803.00
Summary
The bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae causes much morbidity and mortality worldwide. Antibiotic resistance and vaccination is problematic. New anti-infectives are required. We will study proteins (CpsB, CpsC, CpsD) that regulate polysaccharide capsule synthesis to understand their interactions, and to identify drugs that inhibit CpsB and CpsD. We will also investigate the wider role of tyrosine phosphorylation in the bacterium and investigate how this intersects with capsule synthesis.
Pacing Across The Membrane: Characterising The PACE Family Of Multidrug Efflux Systems
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$640,815.00
Summary
The World Health Organisation recognises bacterial antimicrobial resistance as one of the major threats to human health worldwide. Multidrug efflux pumps are an important class of resistance proteins that sit in the bacterial cell membrane and move antimicrobials out of the cell. We recently discovered the first new family of multidrug efflux pumps to be described in 15 years. Our project will define the precise resistance functions of this family and identify ways to block their function.
Mechanisms Of Stable Gene Inheritance In Multiresistant Staphylococcus Aureus
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$620,357.00
Summary
Strains of Golden Staph bacteria resistant to many antibiotics are a major cause of serious hospital-acquired, and increasingly community-acquired, infections in Australia and around the world. The bacteria have mechanisms that cause efficient inheritance of resistance genes, even when antibiotics are no longer being used. This project will elucidate key aspects of such mechanisms so that treatments can be devised that interfere with the development and maintenance of resistance.
An Ace Up Their Sleeve: Characterisation Of A Novel Family Of Drug Efflux Systems Represented By The Acinetobacter AceI Exporter
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$400,286.00
Summary
Chlorhexidine is widely used as an antiseptic in products such as skin washes, soaps, mouthwashes, disinfectants and preservatives. We have recently discovered a novel bacterial protein which pumps chlorhexidine out of bacterial cells to make them resistant to this antiseptic agent. This proposal aims to understand this resistance mechanism and to find inhibitors which could be applied in clinical settings to augment the activity of chlorhexidine.
Horizontal And Vertical Transmission Mechanisms Of Staphylococcus Aureus Multiresistance Plasmids
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$408,993.00
Summary
Strains of Golden Staph bacteria resistant to many antibiotics are a major cause of serious hospital-acquired, and increasingly community-acquired, infections. The bacteria have mechanisms that cause efficient transmission of resistance genes to their offspring as well as to other strains. This project aims to elucidate key features of these mechanisms so that treatments can be devised that disrupt the maintenance and transfer of resistance, so as to prolong the effectiveness of antibiotics.