Speaker:Prof.HUANG Guoxian,The Hong Kong Polytechnic University，PolyU

Sponsor:Prof.PEI Renjun

Time: 10:00a.m.Tuesday,December 20th

Place：A718,SINANO

Abstract:

Antibiotic resistance is a serious worldwide health threatening problem. Bacterial cell division proteins are potential drug targets in the development of new antibiotics. During the process of bacterial cell division, over 30 proteins assemble together to form the so-called ‘divisome’ protein complex. After the assembly of proteins, the divisome will trigger the synthesis of new bacterial cell wall for the daughter cells. Understanding how the divisome works and how the proteins interact in the divisome is important both for advancement of knowledge and application in antibiotic development. Perturbation of protein-protein interactions in the divisome can lead to failure in bacterial cell wall synthesis and hence cell death. In particular, knowledge on the protein-protein interface in these interactions will provide insight on the development of small molecules as antibiotics to perturb the protein-protein interactions. In our laboratory, we have been working on the development of inhibitors for the early bacterial cell division protein FtsZ. FtsZ inhibitors can restore the beta-lactam susceptibility of some drug resistant strains such as methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and are thus potential new antibiotic candidates.