Engineering small lantibiotics by use of novel enzymes

Patricia Arias, room 5172.860 tel 32099 email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Antimicrobial resistance is an eminent global health problem, which has reach a crisis point where novel compounds and innovative methods for drug discovery are urgently require to arrest the spread and development of drug-resistant bacteria. Lantibiotics are promising candidates for this fight. Within this diverse group of peptides, the lantibiotics, has become the focus of research for potential application in the treatment of multidrug resistant bacteria.There are four classes of RiPP’s. Class II lanthipeptides are modify by a bifunctional LanM enzymes and it has been reported that some of these enzymes can modify more than one substrate.

Taking advantage of this substrate diversity and LanM enzymes the aim is to design and engineer novel antimicrobials based on structures of lantibiotics combined with other modifications.

Techniques:

Molecular biology

Peptide Expression and purification

Peptide Engineering

Bioinformatics