Large-Scale Chemical-Pangenomics of Klebsiella pneumoniae

Eachan Johnson of the Francis Crick Institute in the United Kingdom will develop a platform to accelerate the discovery of new antibiotics for Klebsiella pneumoniae, a major cause of drug-resistant infections worldwide. The project aims to understand which bacterial genes are most critical for survival across diverse conditions, and to use that knowledge to identify new ways to disable the bacterium during infection. They will build an integrated, scalable approach that combines genetic tools with phenotypic screening to reveal how chemical compounds act on Klebsiella pneumoniae and to highlight those with the greatest promise as starting points for new treatments. The work will generate foundational datasets, resources, and protocols to strengthen drug-discovery capacity across the Gr-ADI consortium, with the long-term goal of enabling more reliable, mechanism-guided development of antibiotics for Gram-negative infections.