New Antibiotics
Our identification of small-molecule inhibitors of trans-translation has opened new opportunities for translational research and basic science. We identified and characterized inhibitors of trans-translation and showed they have broad-spectrum antibiotic activity. We have several projects to advance drug development with these compounds.
The inhibitors we identified also provide new tools to understand the role of trans-translation in bacterial physiology and genetics. We are using these inhibitors to examine the physiological response of bacteria to losing trans-translation activity, and for chemical genetic experiments to understand why trans-translation is universally conserved in bacteria.