Grant: Foundation Grant

Many infectious bacteria surround themselves in capsules, which are surface layers of long-chain polymers formed from complex sugars. The resulting capsule coats protect bacteria during infection from attacks by components of the host immune defences. Bacteria that are unable to produce capsules may be eliminated quickly by those defences. Our goal is to understand how capsules are built by the bacteria and how they are organized into protective surface layers. We anticipate that understanding the underlying processes will facilitate identification of new antibacterial (anti-capsule) compounds, designed to block capsule production. In addition, we will exploit the knowledge from these studies in innovative strategies for vaccine development. We believe that these efforts will offer novel therapies that broaden available strategies in the light of growing resistance to current antibiotics.