CLEAR

Cell Envelope Antibacterials

01.01.2024 bis 31.12.2027

The CLEAR (Cell Envelope Anti-bacterials”) consortium is an EU-funded Marie Sklodowska Curie European Training Network aiming to train 10 PhD students to become outstanding researchers in the field of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). All projects are embedded in a tight and synergistic academic-industrial collaboration focusing on developing novel leads or alternative strategies to combat drug resistant bacterial pathogens. All project topics are related to antibacterial targets or agents acting at the bacterial cell envelope. The CLEAR research proposal holds promise for combatting Gram-positive pathogens by operating at three levels of drug discovery namely: i) by training students in delineating the complex biological mechanisms underlying bacterial resistance and exploiting this information for identifying novel targets, ii) by developing unique cell-based and virtual screening approaches exploiting novel chemistry and detailed structural information of key cell envelope proteins to provide novel hits and helper-drugs, and by iii) by exploring novel therapies acting via the cell envelope (including re-purposing of known drugs, dual-activity of cell-wall active antimicrobial peptides, and combination therapy of antibiotics and bacteriophages or their components). The activities conducted at the university of Tübingen are focussed on the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of antibiotic action and antibiotic resistance.