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Content archived on 2024-05-27

Natural products and their cellular targets: A multidisciplinary strategy for antibacterial drug discovery

Objective

After decades of successful treatment of bacterial infections with antibiotics, formerly treatable bacteria have developed drug resistance and consequently pose a major threat to public health. To address the urgent need for effective antibacterial drugs we will develop a streamlined chemical-biology platform that facilitates the consolidated identification and structural elucidation of natural products together with their dedicated cellular targets. This innovative concept overcomes several limitations of classical drug discovery processes by a chemical strategy that focuses on a directed isolation, enrichment and identification procedure for certain privileged natural product subclasses. This proposal consists of four specific aims: 1) synthesizing enzyme active site mimetics that capture protein reactive natural products out of complex natural sources, 2) designing natural product based probes to identify their cellular targets by a method called activity based protein profiling , 3) developing a traceless photocrosslinking strategy for the target identification of selected non-reactive natural products, and 4) application of all probes to identify novel enzyme activities linked to viability, resistance and pathogenesis. Moreover, the compounds will be used to monitor the infection process during invasion into eukaryotic cells and will reveal host specific targets that promote and support bacterial pathogenesis. Inhibition of these targets is a novel and so far neglected approach in the treatment of infectious diseases. We anticipate that these studies will provide a powerful pharmacological platform for the development of potent natural product derived antibacterial agents directed toward novel therapeutic targets.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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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.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

ERC-2010-StG_20091028
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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.

ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant

Host institution

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
EU contribution
€ 1 500 000,00
Address
Arcisstrasse 21
80333 Muenchen
Germany

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Region
Bayern Oberbayern München, Kreisfreie Stadt
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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No data

Beneficiaries (1)

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