Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most serious global health threats, contributing to an estimated five million deaths each year and placing increasing pressure on health systems worldwide. "AMR is undermining our ability to treat even routine infections, putting millions of lives at risk, especially in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs)," said Trevor Mundel, President of Global Health at the Gates Foundation.
Researchers from Oxford's Centre for Medicines Discovery at the Nuffield Department of Medicine are among the founding members of a new international initiative, the Gram-Negative Antibiotic Discovery Innovator (Gr-ADI), launched today by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Wellcome, and the Gates Foundation. The consortium aims to accelerate early-stage drug discovery for Gram-negative bacterial infections, with a focus on developing direct-acting, small-molecule antibiotics targeting Enterobacteriaceae.
The Oxford team is led by Dr Annette von Delft and includes collaborators Nicole Stoesser, Lizbe Koekemoer, Paul Brennan, Frank von Delft, Phil Fowler, Thomas Lanyon-Hogg, and Ed Griffen (MedChemica). The researchers will use Oxford's internationally recognised XChem crystallographic fragment screening platform to identify novel chemical starting points against three validated Klebsiella targets.
Read the full story on the Nuffield Department of Medicine website.