GREAT AT SMALL THINGS

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The Search for New Antibiotics from Tropical Fungi

Multi-drug resistant (re-)emerging bacterial pathogens are posing new global health challenges. This problem is compounded by the fact that the development of antimicrobial compounds has stagnated for years. Due to these challenges mainly posed by pathogens in human clinical medicine, it is important to return to natural products drug discovery. This has the potential to provide a readily renewable, reproducible source of novel bioactive compounds.

This project is isolating antimicrobial compounds from macromycetes, fungal and bacterial endophytes. The endophytes are isolated from African medicinal plants. It is recognized that for some microorganisms, their competition and survival strategies are not only related to the production of bactericidal and fungicidal compounds which inhibit microbial growth but also by disrupting the competitor communication systems (quorum sensing, QS) which are essential for the survival of the bacteria. To exploit this, they are being studied for the presence of QS inhibitory molecules which could lead to a new a class of antibiotics whose mode of action does not involve direct contact with the bacterial pathogen and therefore are unlikely to develop resistance.

This project whose acronym is ASAFEM is funded through the ERAFRICA programme. ERAFRICA projects are aimed at fostering closer collaboration and funding of scientific research between the European Union and African countries in Science and Technology for innovation and sustainable development. The project ASAFEM has a Consortium of researchers from five institutions in four countries namely; Josphat Matasyoh (Egerton University - Kenya), Marc Stadler (Helmholtz Centre for Infectione Research – Braunschweig, Germany), Roderich Süßmuth (Technical University of Berlin - Germany), Hafizah Cheniah (University of KwaZulu Natal - South Africa) and Cony Decock (BCCM/MUCL, Université catholique de Louvain - Belgium).

This project aims at isolating antimicrobial secondary metabolites from endophytes and macromycetes which can form lead compounds for antibiotic production and also train young scientists in the field of biodiversity and drug research.