Revealing the fundamental principles of picobodies with broad spectrum and redox...
Revealing the fundamental principles of picobodies with broad spectrum and redox responsive antibacterial activity
Antimicrobial resistance is a burning global issue. The available antimicrobials are losing efficacy as resistant bacteria arise, but the industry does not invest enough into antibiotic discovery due to low expected revenues. Natu...
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31/12/2029
Líder desconocido
1M€
Presupuesto del proyecto: 1M€
Líder del proyecto
Líder desconocido
Fecha límite participación
Sin fecha límite de participación.
Financiación
concedida
El organismo HORIZON EUROPE notifico la concesión del proyecto
el día 2024-10-28
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Información proyecto PicoBody
Duración del proyecto: 62 meses
Fecha Inicio: 2024-10-28
Fecha Fin: 2029-12-31
Líder del proyecto
Líder desconocido
Presupuesto del proyecto
1M€
Fecha límite de participación
Sin fecha límite de participación.
Descripción del proyecto
Antimicrobial resistance is a burning global issue. The available antimicrobials are losing efficacy as resistant bacteria arise, but the industry does not invest enough into antibiotic discovery due to low expected revenues. Natural antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) hold great promise as blueprints for new antibiotics. However, there are few known natural AMPs with sufficiently high potency and low toxicity that enable applications in veterinary and human medicine. As a result, the research on natural peptide antibiotics has been obstructed. New natural AMPs are needed urgently. I propose for the first time that picobodies, recently discovered peptides part of natural cow antibodies, have potent antibacterial activity. In contrast to known mammalian AMPs, picobodies are exceptionally diverse due to the unique bovine immune system. Moreover, all picobodies contain disulfide bonds that enable a redox regulation of their activity (unlike common antibiotics). I suggest that redox-activated picobodies target bacteria in infection sites characterized by a reducing environment such as persistent bacterial biofilms. In PicoBody, I have 4 major objectives: (i) interrogate natural picobody repertoires for antibacterial activity, (ii) investigate if cows can develop antibacterial picobodies against essential bacterial targets, (iii) understand how the redox environment regulates the antibacterial picobody activity, and (iv) evaluate the activity of antibacterial picobodies using in vitro and in vivo models. To achieve my goals, I will employ a multidisciplinary approach based on protein science, molecular biology, microbiology, machine learning, and lab automation. The project will establish key methods for the identification of antibacterial proteins, reveal basic insights about the fascinating bovine immune system, validate picobodies as previously unknown natural AMPs and open new research directions into the discovery of very much needed new peptide antibiotics.