structural enzymology at high spatial and temporal resolution to fight antibiotic resistance
Project Leaders:
Holger Rohde, Christian Betzel, Markus Perbandt, Florian Maurer, Matthias Wilmanns, Arwen Pearson and Martin Aepfelbacher
Image proof:
Illustration: hegasy.de | © Infectophysics 2019
The rapid worldwide emergence of multi-drug resistant bacteria is a key threat to modern medicine. Resistance emerges through expression of enzymes that modify and inactivate antibiotics, or complex changes in bacterial physiology induced by host environmental factors. Molecular understanding of resistance mechanisms is an essential prerequisite for development of sophisticated (e.g. anti-resistance, anti-virulence) strategies to combat multi-resistant bacteria. In this consortium, combined cutting-edge expertise in molecular biology, protein chemistry, structural biology, and imaging, enzymatic and phenotypic mechanisms of bacterial resistance will be resolved at ultra-high spatial and temporal resolution. Thereby, central knowledge gaps in our general understanding of bacterial multi-resistance will be closed, building basis for the targeted development of tailored strategies to overcome current limitation in treatment options.