Capturing antimicrobial peptide activity in simpler molecules

POLY 50

Gregory Tew, tew@mail.pse.umass.edu, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts, 120 Governors Drive, Amherst, MA 01003
Bacterial drug resistance is emerging as one of the most significant challenges to human health. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which are produced by many tissues and cell types of invertebrates, insects, and humans, as part of their innate immune system, have attracted considerable interest as alternative antibiotics. However, all peptide based molecules suffer from a number of critical limitations. As a result, interest in novel mimics of AMPs has increased greatly over the last few years. We will describe our efforts to establish a robust platform for AMP mimics and how this has translated into an innovative bio-tech company with immense potential for solving some of the biggest challenges in modern medicine.