| Project Detail |
Novel targets to reverse antimicrobial resistance
Antimicrobial resistance is a growing medical challenge, hampering the effectiveness of existing drugs and threatening the lives of patients. Therefore, there is a pressing need for compounds that re-sensitise drug-resistant bacteria to existing antimicrobials. To address this problem, the EU-funded INNOTARGETS project will train early-stage researchers in the identification of novel metabolic drug targets in pathogenic bacteria. The project comes as a collaboration between academia and industry and will guide researchers to use innovative approaches to achieve their scientific goals. Research activities will focus on metabolic enzymes necessary or redundant for infection as well as others responsible for antimicrobial resistance. The work will create new research opportunities for tackling antimicrobial resistance.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a challenge to human health and health-systems, and we need novel antimicrobials or drugs that can re-sensitize multi drug resistant (MDR) bacteria to existing antimicrobials. Metabolic enzymes have largely been ignored in the search for antimicrobial targets, and they are an untapped resource. The aim of INNOTARGETS is to train ESRs in highly innovative approaches to identify metabolic drug targets in pathogenic bacteria. The training will deliver ESRs that can become creative, future research team leaders within industry or academia. The network joins 7 academic and 3 non-academic organisations, including two antibiotic discovery companies. The training is multi-disciplinary and trans-sectoral and provides 432 person-months of training to 12 ESRs. The types of targets foreseen are: 1) Metabolic enzymes that are essential for infection, Such enzymes will be identified by use of transposon libraries 2) Redundant enzymes, which can be blocked in parallel. Relevant pairs of enzymes will be identified by use of metabolic models, and a search for bioactive molecules, with affinity for more than one target will be carried out using a novel screening platform. 3) Metabolic enzymes which are essential for expression of resistance mechanisms or spread of resistance plasmids in MDR bacteria. Putative targets for all three types of reactions will be validated using cell culture and animal models. |
