Grant: Project Grant - Priority Announcement: Infection and Immunity

Bacterial infections are a major threat to health. The uncontrolled growth of harmful bacteria can be the cause of food poisoning, respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, or meningitis. In some cases, bacterial infections can be controlled by the human immune response. In other cases, antibiotics are required to control infections. Our current healthcare system is reliant on the widespread use of antibiotics in clinical practice. The widespread use of antibiotics has provided an evolutionary pressure for the emergence of resistance. As resistance genes spread in bacterial populations, our current arsenal of antibiotics can become obsolete. For this reason, we are engaged in a non-stop arms race with bacteria, with resistance to antibiotics generally emerging after the wide distribution of any antibiotic. Currently, estimates of deaths worldwide associated with antimicrobial resistance are 4.95 million per year (as of 2019), a number expected to rise. This grant is focused on an antibiotic for gram-negative bacteria, which are a type of bacteria that is particularly challenging to target. Fewer drugs are available to treat gram-negative infections. The antibiotic we will focus on is synthesized in one specific strain of soil-dwelling bacteria. We want to understand how this molecule is made. Using this information, we will gain knowledge useful for producing more of the antibiotic, and we will also use the knowledge to develop and discover new, related molecules which may also have antibiotic properties. These efforts are complementary to ongoing commercial efforts to test and develop the antibiotic into a drug that can be approved for human use and distribution. Our research is important as we need to develop more antibiotics, particularly for targeting gram-negative bacteria.