Development of a new class of anti-bacterial agents for the treatment of MR-bacteria

Applications are invited from Graduates in Chemistry, Pharmacy and Medicinal Chemistry Master’s level programs to join our group within the School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health. The project encompasses the synthesis and biological screening of a novel group of new anti-bacterial agents for the treatment of MRSA and other multi-resistant bacteria.

No new class of antibiotics have been developed and brought to market in the past 25 years. This has been brought about by the low cost of the drugs when brought to market and a lack of longevity due to the rapid onset of resistance. Nevertheless, governments and other organizations around the world are now beginning to address this issue, with new funding and regulation to aid the search for new antibiotics to avert a potential antibiotic apocalypse when common infections could become deadly.( https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-warns-of-global-threat-of-antibiotic-resistance; http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2014/07/call-new-models-pay-antibiotics-resistance-drug-pharmaceutical-companies; http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/01/12-billion-dollar-package-unveiled-fight-antibiotic-resistance-obama

To address this, our project will involve the following a. combinatorial synthesis and expansion of a library of diverse structural analogues of an existing compound demonstrating excellent antibacterial activity; b. iterative testing of the compound library will be undertaken in house with our biology partners to elucidate the biological activity and aid the design of more potent analogues. All this will be undertaken in our world leading facilities here at Durham, where you will have access to state of the art laboratories and analytical equipment.

Potential candidates will require a strong background in chemical synthesis, with a background knowledge of microbiological techniques and protein purification advantageous.

Successful candidates will be encouraged to participate in national and international conferences on antibacterial resistance. The project/candidate will be actively involved in the Wolfson Special Interest Group “Filling the Void – the search for new antimicrobial targets and inhibitors” (https://www.dur.ac.uk/wolfson.institute/sig/void/).