UNamur and Québec side-by-side to find alternatives to antibiotics

Antibiotic resistance is a serious public health concern throughout the world. New resistance mechanisms are emerging and are threatening our capacity to fight common infectious diseases. A growing list of infections are becoming harder to treat as antibiotics become less effective. Alternatives to antibiotics are therefore urgently needed, in particular to combat multidrug resistant Gram-negative bacteria.

With this aim in mind, Prof. Stéphane Vincent (UNamur, Bio-organic Chemistry Laboratory) and Prof. Charles Gauthier (INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier, Laval, Québec) have decided to bring together their expertise in bio-organic chemistry and antibacterial drug discovery. Their collaborative research project will see Belgian and Canadian teams working side-by-side to develop novel synthetic inhibitors targeting the biosynthesis of polysaccharides at the surface of bacteria. These new compounds could have the potential to function on their own as antibiotics by disrupting the structural integrity of the bacterial cell wall, as well as to potentiate the entry of existing antibiotics normally excluded by the bacterial outer membrane barrier.
Their innovative joint research project was selected for funding through the Collaborative Bilateral Research Program between Québec and Wallonia-Brussels Federation, conducted by the F.R.S-FNRS and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec (FRQ). The budget made available for the UNamur team will be 225.000€ and will be used to cover operating costs, buy small equipment and hire additional researchers.
The project co-leaded by Stéphane Vincent and Charles Gauthier, entitled “Synthetic inhibitors targeting polysaccharides biosynthesis as potential alternatives to antibiotherapy”, has been officially launched in September 2019 and will run for three years.