Targeting virulence as a new antibiotic strategy

BIOL 259

Deborah T. Hung, hung@molbio.mgh.harvard.edu, Emily Pierson, Anne Clatworthy, and Jenny Lee. Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 185 Charles Street, CPZN 7208, Boston, MA 02114
We are entering a challenging new era where microbial resistance to antibiotics complicates the treatment of many bacterial infections. The ability to develop new antimicrobials lags behind the development of resistance for many life-threatening bacterial species. Novel ways to combat infection and discover new antibiotics will be paramount to winning the war against microbial resistance. One novel approach is to target gene functions essential for infection rather than simply for in vitro viability. This tactic aims to target in vivo essential gene functions required for virulence and in vivo viability. The identification of bacterial requirements for infection is critical to this approach. We are currently developing chemical biological and genomic approaches to study virulence inhibition within the context of the host-pathogen interaction, including high-throughput chemical screening for small molecule modulators of infection.