Grant: Operating Grant

Antibiotics are vital to the health of Canadians yet the remarkable success of these drugs over the past half century is under threat. There are two main reasons for this state of affairs. First the microbes targeted by antibiotics have developed resistance to all classes of available drugs. Second, the pharmaceutical industry has largely fled the antibiotic discovery field and is focusing on mature compounds with proven efficacy. The role of academe in contemporary antibiotic discovery is therefore paramount. In this renewal application we propose to expand our research on engineering antibiotic producing bacteria in the search for new methods to expand our antibiotic repertoire. By leveraging our expertise in bacterial genetics, enzyme function, and chemical purification and synthesis, we will contribute significantly to the development of new antimicrobial strategies that have the potential to prime the antibiotic development pipeline.