Professor: Christopher Alabi
Project Description: Antibiotic resistance is a critical issue compounded by a decrease in the development of new antibiotics. The aim of this project is to investigate a new series of antibacterial candidates based on the antibacterial oligothioetheramide (AOT) backbone recently developed in the Alabi lab. Current AOTs exhibit many traits desirable for antibiotics: they are bactereolytic, easily modified, and resistant to proteolysis. In this project, the student will perform a variety of experiments to analyze new AOTs and determine: the minimum concentration necessary to kill bacteria, ability to disrupt the bacterial cell membrane, and toxicity towards mammalian cells.