‘Hot bug’ study attracts research grant
Thermobifida fusca,a member of the bacteria family, thrives in temperatures of around 55 degrees Celsius and is commonly found in rotting organic material, such as compost or piles of manure. The tiny organism is pivotal to a project by Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) researcher Dr Thierry Izoré, from the Cryle lab. Dr Izoré’s project has attracted a $55,000 Contributing to Australian Scholarship and Science (CASS) Foundation grant.
In the project 'Studying hot bugs to make good drugs’ Dr Izoré will use the thermophile to structurally characterise the production of Non-Ribosomal Peptide Synthetase (NRPS). NRPS machineries produce many last-resort antibiotics such as vancomycin and teicoplanin but their overall architecture is not well understood.
Previous attempts to gain a high-resolution structure of NRPS have failed due to its flexible, unstable nature; Dr Izoré hopes that Thermobifida fusca’s highly stable proteins and enzymes will allow him to overcome this problem.
“This thermophile is the best model we have to lead this study,” Dr Izoré said.
The study ultimately aims to use new knowledge to redesign antibiotic-producing NRPS assembly lines to develop new antibiotics to counter the problem of ever-changing drug-resistant bacteria.
“It’s like a car assembly line made up of modules,” Dr Izoré said.
“If we know what the modules look like we can exchange modules – or compounds – from one assembly line to another. In the end we hope to obtain the entire structure of a full-length assembly of NRPS machinery,” he said.
New approaches to antibiotics are imperative; it is estimated that by 2050 there will be 10 million deaths globally a year due to bacterial resistance1.
“If our last line antibiotics all fail and we have no back-ups it will be a very bad situation,” Dr Izoré said.
Dr Izoré said the backing of the CASS Foundation was vital in launching the project.
“This has given me the funding support to help me reach this step and get this great project on track,” he said. The CASS Foundation grant is a stepping stone to develop the study to the point where it could become of interest for government-funded grants and fellowships.
1 Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, Tackling a crisis for the health and wealth of nations, London, United Kingdom: Review on Antimicrobial Resistance; 2014
The CASS Foundation is a private philanthropic foundation that supports, among others, Victorian-based research organisations.
About the Monash Biomedicine Discovery InstituteCommitted to making the discoveries that will relieve the future burden of disease, the newly established Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University brings together more than 120 internationally-renowned research teams. Our researchers are supported by world-class technology and infrastructure, and partner with industry, clinicians and researchers internationally to enhance lives through discovery.