Research

Thesis title: "Investigating and engineering the biosynthesis of glycopeptide antibiotics from the newly discovered type VI family"

Thesis outline: Antimicrobial resistance is a serious global health problem that can be be tackled with the discovery of novel antibiotics. Glycopeptide antibiotics (GPAs), produced by Actinomycetes, are critical for treating multidrug-resistant Gram-positive infections, but discovery of new GPAs has been limited by silent or cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). This project focuses on the discovery and engineering of novel Type VI GPAs, a recently identified family exemplified by saarvienin A, which has unique structural features and potent bioactivity. Using the saarvienin A biosynthetic gene cluster as a reference, comparative genome mining was performed to identify strains harbouring related clusters. By working with the selected strains, this project aims to identify new glycopeptides, investigate their biosynthesis, improve their production, and create new analogs.

Funding: University Assistant (predoctoral)

Supervisor: Sergey Zotchev

Back