Research and Publications

Bacterial multidrug resistance (MDR) has emerged as a serious public health issue worldwide. An estimated 700,000 people die annually due to infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria, and this number is expected to rise to an alarming 10 million deaths annually by the year 2050, according to the United Nations' Interagency Coordination Group Report. There is a pressing need for research into and development of novel classes of effective antimicrobials. “ESKAPE pathogens”, which include Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter spp, are a group of deadly bacterial pathogens with rapidly growing multidrug resistant properties. These bugs were chosen based on the rate of infection, mortality, occurrence of resistance, and availability of treatment options. Four out of the six pathogens are Gram-negative bacteria. My project is to develop antibiotics against these multi drug resistant pathogens.

An effective strategy to fight against multi-drug resistant superbugs is to develop peptide-based antibiotics, like AMPs, a divergent class of membrane-permeating peptides with crucial functions in innate host defence.  AMPs (Antimicrobial peptides) are organic molecules produced by various multicellular living organisms and are responsible for the innate immunity. They have the potential to be used as antibiotics considering a number of advantages they have to offer as compared to the traditional antibiotics. However, along with merits, there are certain limitations associated with utilizing AMPs as drugs. 

My research aims to establish the fundamental biotechnology principles for developing a new class of peptide antimicrobials by using innovative strategies, aiming to establish principles of a priori design of AMPs by a combination of empirical methods and machine learning-driven drug discovery to explore means of improving pharmacokinetic properties of AMPs by the use of co-crystallization, derivatization with unnatural amino acids and enclosure by nanostructured delivery matrices. 

Publications