An Integrated Approach To Combat Antibiotic Resistance
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$389,120.00
Summary
The development of antibiotics such as penicillin was hailed as one of the great breakthroughs in medicine. However, an increasing number of pathogens have acquired resistance to these drugs. One of the most common resistance mechanisms employed by these pathogens is the use of metal dependent enzymes that promote the degradation of antibiotics. To date, no clinically useful inhibitors for these enzymes are available. In this project, we aim to develop such inhibitors as therapeutic drug leads.
Preventing The Evolution Of Transmissible Nitroimidazole Resistance In Mycobacterium Tuberculosis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$664,463.00
Summary
Tuberculosis kills more people than any other infectious disease. Unfortunately, the drugs available to us to treat TB are losing their efficacy due to the evolution of drug resistance. A new class of drugs, nitroimidazoles, has been developed, but there is a risk that the bacterium that causes TB will develop resistance to these compounds too. We will identify resistance mutations before they occur in the wild, to help identify them and find new compounds for which resistance cannot develop.
Targeting Redox Homeostasis To Prevent Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Persistence
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$396,025.00
Summary
Tuberculosis is now the leading cause of death from infectious disease worldwide. This reflects the ability of its causative agent to persist, leading to failure of antibiotic treatment and development of drug resistance. In this project, we propose to overcome this by inhibiting a unique metabolic pathway that is activated when the pathogen enters its persistent state. We will use a cutting-edge combination of techniques to develop this pathway for next-generation therapies.
Inhibitors Of Hypoxanthine-guanine-xanthine Phosphoribosyltransferase As Versatile Drugs To Treat Infectious Diseases
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$766,163.00
Summary
Due to the increase in resistance to many of the frontline drugs to treat bacterial and parasitic infections, there is an urgent need to develop new pipelines for drug discovery against the pathogens that are causative agents of this diseases. This project pioneers the blocking of nucleotide synthesis to develop new drug leads to treat malaria, human tuberculosis, African sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and uropathogenic E.coli infections.
Flaviviral Proteases As Viable Targets For Antiinfective Drugs
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$620,716.00
Summary
Viruses hijack the machinery and nutrients of cells they infect in order to reproduce. We will study viral enzymes (proteases) essential for virus replication, use fluorescent probes to learn where the viral enzymes hide and act in infected cells, track the passage of drugs aimed at these enzymes, design drugs to block their actions and stop virus replication, and test antiviral activity against Dengue, West Nile, Japanese Encephalitis and Yellow Fever viruses which infect millions of people.
Antibiotic resistance is a looming public health crisis. New antibiotics with new mechanisms of action are desperately needed. The long-term goal of this research is to develop new drugs that disarm bacteria to overcome the problem of antibiotic resistance.
Targeting Acetohydroxyacid Synthase To Discover New Antifungal Agents.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$481,135.00
Summary
Invasive fungal infections are increasingly being recognized as a major life threatening risk to hospitalized patients. The efficacy of the current medications is sub-optimal due to the emergence of resistance and the high dosage regimes that are required to treat these infections. We propose to develop a new class of antifungal agent that target an enzyme, acetohydroxyacid synthase, whose activity is required for the survival of pathogenic fungi in mammals.