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The Ying And Yang Of Antibiotic Discovery And Resistance
Author(s) -
Wright Gerry
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.100.2
Subject(s) - antibiotics , antibiotic resistance , drug discovery , resistance (ecology) , antimicrobial , drug resistance , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , computational biology , bioinformatics , ecology
Resistance to antibiotics is ancient and pervasive in the microbial world. The presence of resistance elements in the genomes of virtually all bacteria and their ability to circulate across genera presents a daunting challenge to the drug discovery sector. The tension between antibiotic discovery and resistance must be managed in order to maintain an ability to produce new drugs and antimicrobial regimens needed by medicine. By harnessing our understanding of the natural history of antibiotic biosynthesis and resistance we can direct efforts to identify candidates for new drugs. One such approach is through applying resistance as a filter to identify microbes that produce known classes of antibiotics. Another is to target resistance itself to find potential co‐drugs that can be used in combination with antibiotics. We have develop a cell‐based platform that can be applied in both strategies. Using this approach, we have identified new inhibitors of resistance and producers of new and rare antibiotics. Support or Funding Information This work is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.