Teaching new tricks to old drugs – discovery of novel antibacterial to fight the silent pandemic of AMR
Marta Martins, Antimicrobial Resistance and Host Modulation Group, Department of Microbiology, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Host: Alexandra R. Fernandes, UCIBIO-NOVA
ZOOM link: https://bit.ly/GuestSeminarsUCIBIO
ID da reunião: 865 7786 0516
Senha: 805165
Abstract: The rapid emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria occurring worldwide is jeopardizing the efficacy of available antibiotics, which for decades have saved millions of lives. In addition, the development of new drugs is still declining with pharmaceutical companies curtailing their anti-infective research programs. Antimicrobial resistance is a “silent pandemic” and a neglected global crisis that requires urgent attention and action. To deal with this “pandemic” the gap in drug discovery needs to be addressed urgently. In order to bridge this gap, there is the need to discover new drugs or to repurpose existing ones. Examples of these can be anticancer compounds; antihypertensives; antipsychotics; among others. These compounds can be a source of new effective antimicrobials. In this talk, I will discuss the strategy used in my lab to repurpose different compounds to treat antimicrobial resistant infections. The use of alternative therapeutics that are focused on shifting the current drug discovery paradigm from “finding new drugs” to “combining existing agents” will also be discussed.
Short CV: Dr. Marta Martins has a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences, specialisation of Microbiology, conferred by the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (IHMT/UNL), Lisbon, Portugal. She is also the PI of the Antimicrobial Resistance and Host Modulation group at the Department of Microbiology, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Currently, her research addresses the study of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria of public health importance, along with aspects of the infection biology. She is mainly interested in the discovery of new drugs to treat ESKAPE pathogens and how specific drugs can be repurposed to tackle these pathogens. She has published several book chapters and many papers addressing this subject.