Microbial Epimerases: A toolbox for the synthesis of novel peptide-based drugs
Antibiotic resistance has increased steadily in recent years. Could peptides - organic chemical compounds made up of amino acids - contribute to the solution?
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Most peptide therapeutics are rapidly degraded in the human body. However, this process,can be slowed down considerably by modifying the peptides. The focus of “Microbial Epimerases: A toolbox for the synthesis of novel peptide-based drugs” is on enzymes capable of carrying out this modification. This should lead to the development of new peptide drugs that that might be effective against resistant bacterial strains.
Rebecca Buller and her team will work together with Rémy Bruggmann and Vincent Perreten from the University of Bern on the development of an enzyme platform. The project is scheduled to start in June 2019. It will last three years and will receive federal funding of around 800,000 Swiss francs.