Targeting the bacterial surface for antibiotic delivery

Bacterial infections and antimicrobial resistance present major global public health challenges. Current rates of new antibiotic discovery are unlikely to address the demand for effective antibacterial therapies. Even if drug discovery was accelerated, new antibiotics will inevitably engender resistance in both target and non-target organisms collaterally exposed to the antibacterial agents during therapy, limiting the expected usable life of even novel antibiotics.
Aims and objectives
Our goal is to enhance the efficacy of antimicrobial against targeted pathogenic species, while reducing collateral damage to non-target bacterial species and host cells. The project will deliver an underlying mechanistic understanding of selective routes for bacterial killing and the 'product attributes' of a delivery technology which (i) achieves preferential targeting to bacterial cells per se, and (ii) increases efficacy against targeted species, while reducing collateral damage to non-target bacterial species and host cells.