Development of a First-in-Class Antibiotic Targeting the Biosynthesis of the Outer Envelope of Gram-Negative Bacteria

Effective treatment of bacterial infections is an essential component of modern medicine. To that end, antibiotics have played a central role in saving millions of lives. Antibiotic resistance - when bacteria change so that antibiotics no longer work, is growing at a dangerously high rate and poses one of the greatest public health threats of our time. Of particular concern are the resistance levels exhibited by the Gram-negative group of bacteria. No new class of antibiotic against Gram- negative bacteria has been approved for over 50 years.

We are using systems biology and machine learning to build a detailed computational model of Escherichia coli - a type of Gram-negative bacteria. We use the model to identify vulnerable points ("drug targets") in Gram-negative bacteria that are missed by conventional antibacterial discovery approaches. The project is based on developing a drug against a first-in-class target identified using our model. If successful, the project would represent a new class of antibiotic to treat Gram-negative infections.