News
20.12.2021
NCCR AntiResist PhD Fellowship Call
We are thrilled to announce the opening of our first NCCR AntiResist fellowship call! Apply now: https://biped2.biozentrum.unibas.ch/antiresist The application deadline is March 1, 2022.
18.11.2021
World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) November 18 - 24th
The theme this year is "Spread Awareness, Stop Resistance". Find out more about what you can do and learn about international "WAAW" at the World Health Organization's webpage here: https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-antimicrobial-awareness-week/2021
25.08.2021
NCCR AntiResist is exited to announce the launch of INCATE: Incubator for Antibacterial Therapies Europe. INCATE (INCubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe) is launching on August 25th to support innovators in the fight against drug-resistant bacterial infections. INCATE is a partnership between academic members, industry, and other supporting partners. It will help to bridge the gap between research and industry for treatments, diagnostics and interventions that reduce the prevalence and impact of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).
Read more at their newly launched webpage here.
02.08.2021
AntiResist Director, Christoph Dehio, spoke with NZZ am Sonntag about antibiotic resistance and how politics and cooperations with Big Pharma can catalyze new approaches to antibiotic development. You can read the article (in German) from July 25, 2021 here.
30.07.2021
The latest PNAS paper from the Hiller and the Bumann labs is shaking the common assumptions on porins function, which may unravel new ways of facilitating antibiotic delivery into bacteria. Check out this great collaborative work here: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2107644118
Ude, J., Tripathi, V., Buyck, J.M., Söderholm, S., Cunrath, O., Fanous, J., Claudi, B., Egli, A., Schleberger, C., Hiller, S., and Bumann, D. (2021) Outer membrane permeability: Antimicrobials and diverse nutrients bypass porins in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. PNAS 118:e2107644118
Novel antibiotics are urgently needed to resolve the current antimicrobial resistance crisis. For critical pathogens, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, drug entry through the cell envelope is one of the major challenges in the development of effective novel antibiotics. The Hiller and Bumann labs now show that almost all antibiotics and diverse hydrophilic nutrients bypass porins and instead permeate directly through the outer membrane lipid bilayer. By contrast, Pseudomonas needs porins for efficient utilisation of carboxylate-containing nutrients as carboxylate groups hinder bilayer penetration. As many current antibiotics carry carboxylate groups, these findings may lead us to re-consider our strategies when designing new antimicrobial molecules, and to identify new strategies for facilitating their delivery into bacteria.