Welcome to the Antimicrobial Discovery Research Lab
Our Mission
Harness millions of years of natural evolution to accelerate the discovery and development of new antibacterials to combat the challenge of antibiotic resistance.
Our Research:
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi. An increasing number of governments around the world are devoting efforts to a problem so serious that it threatens the achievements of modern medicine. A post-antibiotic era – in which common infections and minor injuries can kill – far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st Century.
— Antimicrobial resistance: global report on surveillance 2014, WHO
The rampant spread of antibiotic resistance and the rise of multi-drug resistant pathogens is a global problem that threatens our ability to treat bacterial infections. The utility of conventional antibiotics is fast diminishing and the spread of resistance is outpacing the introduction of new antibiotics.
We are focusing on the antimicrobial molecules that protect animals whose lives are spent in challenging environments. For example, alligators live in swamps and Komodo dragons have mouths filled with deadly pathogens. Such extreme animal species may have evolved especially effective peptide-based mechanisms for defending themselves against bacterial infection. Host defense peptides represent an ancient and evolutionarily successful protective mechanism employed by nearly all living organisms – one against which bacteria have failed to develop wide-spread resistance.
Supporting Our Research
If you would like to support and help us continue our Research you can donate to support our us or connect us to fins out ways to help our continuing research!
Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has not effect without cause nor invention without necessity.
-Leonardo da Vinc
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