AntiPathoGN

The research project "Identification and validation of novel drug targets in Gram-negative bacteria by global search: a trans-system approach" –AntiPathoGN- was launched in February 2009 by a consortium of ten institutions –academic and industrial- from three European countries. With a duration of four years, this Collaborative Project is supported by funding under the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union.

The AntiPathoGN project proposes a novel strategy for the discovery of new antimicrobial drug targets in a number of Gram-negative bacteria. This strategy is based on a comparative, system-level analysis of molecular processes involved in pathogenicity, virulence, drug resistance, cell division and/or growth of selected pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria through a combination of computational biology, interactome discovery, in-vivo protein blocking and structural biology techniques. This comparative analysis, at one organization level above genomics, shall permit the discovery of new potential drug targets, relevant to both species-specific and broad-spectrum antimicrobial strategies. Identified targets will be subject to validation.

In addition, the AntiPathoGN project pursues the identification of novel antibacterial compounds acting against the previously validated targets by screening purpose-specific libraries of products derived from natural resources and from synthetic compounds. The activity of hit compounds resulting from the screens will be tested against a collection of pathogenic strains.

The Consortium is composed of one university bringing in expertise in computational biology and microbiology –Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain- three research centres contributing expertises in computational and experimental interactomics, structural biology and clinical microbiology –Fundació Privada Institut de Recerca Biomèdica and Fundació Privada Clínic per a la Recerca Biomèdica, from Spain and Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, from Germany- and five small or medium enterprises with records on systems biology, structural biology, drug discovery and clinical research –RPS Research Iberica and Anaxomics Biotech, from Spain, Proteros Biostructures and InterMed Discovery, from Germany and Bio-Xtal, from France.