Project to develop antibiotics announced

The £70 million project will seek to develop antibiotics in order to fight against a growing epidemic of increased biological resistance to many of today’s medicines.

Research led by institutions such as Aston University, Birmingham will hopefully enable the development of novel antibiotics against Gram-negative pathogens in a project called ENABLE (European Gram-Negative Antibacterial Engine), as only two new classes of antibiotics have been brought to the market in the last 30 years.

“This represents a fantastic opportunity to innovate intelligent drug design in future

Aston University professor Roslyn Bill

At Aston, a research team led by Professor Roslyn Bill and Dr Alice Rothnie will look into how the behaviour of membrane proteins, which help structure human cells, is affected by the introduction of new antibiotics developed by the ENABLE project.

Membrane proteins are involved in many key processes in the cell, such as the uptake of nutrients, waste disposal and controlling how the cells interact with each other and their environment.

“The study of the proteins is growing in importance - indeed, eight of the top ten selling drugs are directed at membrane proteins, including asthma and anti-psychotic treatments - so this represents a fantastic opportunity to innovate intelligent drug design in future,” said Prof Bill.

However, it is suggested that any new antibiotics brought to the market would likely be used cautiously to delay the development of resistance, adding an additional financial challenge in recouping the development costs.

Pharmaceuticals firm GlaxoSmithKline, alongside a host of other companies and industry institutions, is expected to be involved in the six-year drug-development research programme.