Stronger Antibiotics to Battle Biofilm-related

Infections

The World Health Organization regards multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens as one of the top global public health threats facing humanity. Biofilms play a large role in this challenge. The dosage of conventional antibiotics it takes to eradicate a biofilm would be toxic or cause too many adverse side effects, leaving no efficacious treatment against bacterial biofilms on the table at this time.

Joshua Pierce, a professor in the Department of Chemistry, has developed novel compounds that could finally offer an effective tool in the fight against this dangerous form of infectious disease. Pierce has conjugated the compounds with Vancomycin — which is known as a “last-resort” antibiotic, and by itself, still is ineffective against biofilm-related infections — and shown the compounds can make it potent enough to be effective against bacteria in a biofilm state. The technology could also be applied to other FDA-approved antibiotics.

CIF support, along with matching funds, will be used to complete preclinical trial work. Completing the CIF project milestones will generate data that directly addresses feedback from potential industry partners.