Human Health
Development for a new antibiotic for methicillin resistant Staphyloccocal aureus: production, derivatives and resistance
SOF148- Project Leaders: Katherine Ryan
- Institutions: University of British Columbia (UBC)
- Budget: $200000
- Program/Competition: Strategic Opportunities Fund
- Genome Centre(s): Genome British Columbia
- Fiscal Year: 2015
- Status: Closed
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a pathogen commonly found in hospitals and other community settings. MRSA can cause several types of skin infections that can be life-threatening in some cases. Currently, around 4% of a particular pathogen, S. aureus, from Canadian hospitals have high-level resistance to the current antibiotic treatment. There is an urgent need to initiate efforts to develop a replacement antibiotic. Indolmycin, is a good option but extremely expensive.
This project aimed to develop a cheaper way to produce this medicine, to generate and test derivatives, and to understand potential modes of resistance. The long-term goal is to establish a start-up company for the development and licensing of the indolmycin-like antibiotics.
