Objective
Over the next 35 years, antibiotic resistant bacteria are expected to kill more than 300 million people. The need to find alternative strategies for antimicrobial therapies remains a global challenge with several bottlenecks in the antibiotic discovery process. Using Staphylococcus aureus, the most common multidrug-resistant bacterium in the European Union and an excellent model organism for cell division in cocci, we propose:
(i) to find new pathways to re-sensitize resistant bacteria. Bacteria undergo major morphology changes during the cell cycle. We hypothesize that these changes generate windows of opportunity during which bacteria are more susceptible or more tolerant to the action of antibiotics. We will identify key regulators of the cell cycle in order to manipulate the duration of windows of opportunity for the action of existing antibiotics.
(ii) to develop new fluorescence-based reporters for whole-cell screenings of antimicrobial compounds with new modes of action, including compounds that arrest or delay the cell cycle; compounds that target non-essential pathways that are required for expression of resistance against existing antibiotics and therefore can be used as synergistic drugs for combination therapies; compounds that inhibit the production of virulence factors and compounds that revert persister states that are phenotypically resistant to antibiotics.
(iii) to unravel new modes of action of antibiotics by using the constructed reporter strains as powerful tools to learn how antibiotics act at the single cell level.
Over the past years, my group has become expert on the biology of S. aureus, has constructed powerful biological tools to study cell division and synthesis of the cell surface and has studied mechanisms of action of various antimicrobial compounds. We are therefore in a privileged position to quickly unravel the function of new players in the bacterial cell cycle and simultaneously contribute to accelerate antibiotic discovery.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology bacteriology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs antibiotics
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy drug resistance antibiotic resistance
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2017-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1099 085 Lisboa
Portugal
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.