13th Molecules Webinar

Antibacterial Agents 2021

Multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria represent one of the greatest threats to global health. The majority of drugs currently in clinical practice were introduced in the period between the 1950s and 1980s. Some Gram-negative bacteria have already acquired pandrug-resistance. Drug resistant Mycobacterium spp. remains one of the most difficult pathogens to cure without long treatment regimens. Spore-forming Bacillus spp. are very difficult to treat with marketed drugs. Such antibiotic resistances are threatening our ability to treat illnesses; however, the development of new antimicrobial agents is declining, due in large part, to the fact that research and development in large pharmaceutical industries have been targeted towards drug development of the leading chronic diseases in the last few decades. The continuous development of antibacterial agents is important to reduce the global threat of antibiotic resistance. In the last decade, antibacterial drug discovery has advanced to unique translational sciences, including target-oriented drug discovery, structural biochemistry, new synthetic methods, modern drug delivery approaches, novel screening methods, and high-throughput assay methods. This webinar will provide recent advances in the discovery of antibacterial agents in academia. The related Special Issue "Antibacterial Agents 2021", which will be published by the open access journal Molecules, is open for submission should you have a relevant paper ready for publication. More details can be found here.

Date: 15 July 2021

Time: 4:00pm CEST | 10:00am EDT | 10:00pm CST Asia

Webinar ID: 812 4138 3757

Webinar Secretariat: molecules.webinar@mdpi.com

On Thursday, 15 July 2021, MDPI and the Journal Molecules organized the 13th webinar on Molecules, entitled “Antibacterial Agents 2021”.

The introduction was held by the Chair of the webinar, Prof. Dr. Michio Kurosu. He is a Full Professor of Pharmaceutical Science at College of Pharmacy, University of Tennessee Health Science Center. His research interests are focused on the development of novel antibacterial agents and anti-cancer drug leads by targeting unexploited drug targets.

The first speaker to quick off this webinar was Prof. Dr. Scott G. Franzblau, with his presentation "Natural Cyclic Peptides Targeting Protein Degradation in Mycobacterium Tuberculosis". Prof. Dr. Scott Franzblau is the Director of the Institute for Tuberculosis Research and an Albert Schatz Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The second presentation with the title "How to Beat Antimicrobial Resistance" was held by Prof. Dr. Kim Lewis. He is a University Distinguished Professor and Director, Antimicrobial Discovery Center at Northeastern University in Boston, a Fellow of the American Society of Microbiology, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He completed his PhD in Biochemistry at Moscow University, and has been on the Faculty of MIT, University of Maryland, and Tufts University prior to coming to Northeastern.

The third presentation “Design of Antibiotics Targeting Biotin Metabolism” was held by Prof. Dr. Courtney C. Aldrich. He is a professor at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Minnesota, where his research is focused on preparing new antibacterial agents. He is also the editor-in-chief of ACS Infectious Diseases, which broadly focuses on the application of chemistry to infectious disease research.

The presentations were followed by a Q&A and a discussion, moderated by the Chair Prof. Dr. Michio Kurosu. The webinar was offered via Zoom and required registration to attend. The full recording can be found here on Sciforum website. In order to stay updated on the next webinars on Molecules be sure to sign up for our newsletter by clicking on “Subscribe” at the top of the page.

Antibacterial Agents 2021
Guest Editor: Prof. Dr. Michio Kurosu
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2021