FP6 - 5224 ACTINOGEN - Integrating genomics-based applications to exploit actinomycetes as a resource for new antibiotics

Contacts
Website: www.swan.ac.uk/research/ActinoGEN/




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Biological Conversion : Biotechnology : Life Science and Food Quality : Pharmaceuticals/Cosmetics

Type of Project	Integrated Project
Contract No	FP6 - 5224
Total Cost	11,350 KEuro
EC Contribution	9,380 KEuro
Start Date	17-12-2004
Duration	60 Months

Abstract Multiple drug resistant bacteria are a major and rapidly increasing threat to human health, placing a heavy burden on already stretched medical budgets. Two courses of action are necessary. Effort is needed to tackle the root causes of antibiotic resistance by reducing their use in animal husbandry and limiting current prescription practices for non-lethal human diseases. More research is also necessary to develop new antibiotics to fill the gap in the meantime.

This project is actively pursuing the second path. The project will combine new genomic technologies with chemical analysis to take advantage of microbial genetic resources for new antibiotics. The team also plans to develop 'generic superhosts' in order to produce these new antibiotics in sufficiently high yields.

Novel genomics-based approaches will be developed in order to exploit hitherto overlooked genetic resources for new antibiotics. Drug discovery will focus on

• accessing new antibiotic biosynthetic pathways from diverse actinomycetes that have yet to be cultured;
• activating cryptic pathways from well-characterised actinomycetes;
• engineering novel hybrid antibiotics by combinatorial biosynthesis.

To greatly accelerate the drug discovery process, a parallel strategy will be to engineer generic hosts optimised to produce high antibiotic yields. With the complete genome sequence of the model actinomycete, Streptomyces coelicolor, and mobilization of a pan-European effort to apply newly developed multidisciplinary post-genomic technologies, a holistic understanding of the physiology and regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis is achievable for the first time.

This will, in turn, permit rational intervention to engineer generic hosts for high-yield antibiotic production. This synergy of discovery linked to overproduction will place the European biotechnology sector at the forefront of developing much-needed new antibiotics to combat multi-drug resistant pathogens.

Coordinator

University of Wales Swansea, School of Biological Sciences, United Kingdom

Partners

• Universidad de Oviedo, Spain
• Eberhard Karls-Universität Tübingen, Germany
• Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
• Entrechem Sl, Spain
• The University of Manchester, United Kingdom
• Libragen, France
• Seoul National University, , Republic of Korea
• Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences of The Czech Republic, Czech Republic
• Institute of Biotechnology of León, Spain
• John Innes Centre, United Kingdom
• Technische Universitaet Berlin, Germany
• Dipartimento Di Biologia Cellulare E Dello Sviluppo, Universita Di Palermo, Italy
• Universite Paris-Sud, France
• University of Surrey, United Kingdom
• Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, France
• Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Netherlands
• University of Warwick, United Kingdom

Contacts

Contact

• Paul DYSON / University of Wales Swansea School of Biological Sciences / UNITED KINGDOM