Gram-scale production of antibacterial cyclic peptide via a synthetic biology approach

Antibacterial cyclic peptides are known for their high stabilities and can be used as anti-microbials for treating gastrointestinal infections, including ones caused by multi-drug resistant pathogens.

This project will use an interdisciplinary approach to make cyclic peptides libraries at large scales and screen for their antibacterial properties.

We are seeking for a self-motivated and intelligent PhD student to help address a key global challenge – designing and producing novel antibacterial agents – by using a mixture of microbiology, biocatalysis, computational chemistry and chemical biology techniques.

The use of active cyclic peptides as pharmaceuticals has become the frontier for drug discovery. Natural cyclic peptides confer a wide range of biological activity, whereas de novo designed cyclic peptides incorporated with unnatural amino acids are shown to be potent modulators for "undruggable" targets. Noticeably, because of their stabilities against acid and protease treatments, antibacterial cyclic peptides are particularly suitable for treating gastrointestinal infections, including ones that pose major socioeconomic threats because of their resistance against multiple antibiotics including carbapenems. Hence, an efficient, large-scale method to produce a wide range of antibacterial cyclic peptides is needed but has not yet been developed.

For further information on this project, please see our website: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research/programmes/project/gram-scale-production-of-antibacterial-cyclic-peptide-via-a-synthetic-biology-approach