Antimicrobial Resistance A New Drug Discovery Perspective Using Synthetic Biology

Professor of Synthetic Biology and Professor of Systems Biology, Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom!

Summary

Antibiotic resistance is a significant international health issue that needs to be addressed and solved urgently. However, major pharmaceutical companies have reduced their efforts in novel antimicrobial discovery because of the low cost-to-profit ratio and the difficulty in actually finding new compounds with effective activity. Synthetic Biology (SB) will offer a new approach to the discovery of novel drugs, overcoming some of these problems. Using this state-of-art technology, antibiotics can be designed for novel activity and can be developed much more cost effectively. For SB to be fully exploited for discovering new antimicrobials, a number of policy changes are required (e.g., new funding mechanisms, more international collaboration, dedicated funding for high-risk fundamental research, stronger translation of new technologies to industry, new funding/research initiatives targeted at less-affluent country markets).