Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics
DRUG DISCOVERY AND METABOLOMICS
Tuberculosis is the deadliest disease of all diseases caused by pathogenic bacteria despite the disease being treated by combination regimens of up to four antibiotics. Increasing incidences of drug resistance further complicate efforts to eradicate the disease with existing drug regimens. These are just some of the reasons why there's an urgent need for the development of new antibiotics with novel mechanisms of action.
Leveraging on the recent advances in genomics and sequencing, our drug discovery strategy focuses more on exploiting the vulnerability of essential pathways for the discovery of new hits against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Therefore, our research is more focused on the following areas:
- Identification and validation of vulnerable drug targets in Mycobacteria
- Investigation of the metabolic mechanisms that enable Mycobacterium tuberculosis to survive the host chemical defenses.
- Application of genomic tools to generate innovative Mycobacterial model organisms suitable for target mechanism-based whole-cell screening.
- Early drug development and evaluation, through screening of mixtures and pure compounds against different mycobacterial strains.
