Identification and Validation of Drug Targets in Klebsiella Species

Ian Gilbert and colleagues at the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom, along with Beverly Egyir of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Ghana, will integrate microbiology and industrial drug discovery expertise to tackle drug-resistant and hypervirulent Klebsiella. They will screen compounds in infection-mimicking conditions to identify novel chemical start points and drug targets. In contrast to current antibiotic targets which are essential for growth, the team will seek drug targets which cause lethal damage to bacteria when they are in slow or non-growing states typical of infection environments. They will use their integrated drug discovery platform to validate and optimize hits, including testing against global clinical isolates, with the aim of establishing proof of concept for these new series.

This grant is funded by The Novo Nordisk Foundation.