U-Md. Researchers Report Advance in Biological Microfactories for Dru... (microfactory is to develop drugs thatcan...)

U-Md. Researchers Report Advance in Biological Microfactories for Drug Research

Date:4/7/2008

microfactory is to develop drugs that can interrupt a process called "quorum-sensing."

In quorum-sensing, bacteria cells, such as E. coli, communicate with each other to form a quorum or group capable of creating an infection. The team has already demonstrated that it is possible to interrupt this quorum-sensing ability or to introduce new communication to ultimately prevent such infections.

Candidate drugs will be applied in the microfactory to test their ability to suppress or interrupt quorum-sensing. Drugs that succeed will not only serve as good candidates for new antibiotics, but they promise a new strategy for antibiotic therapy.

"Since the drugs won't kill the bacteria, the bacteria won't be stimulated to mutate, which renders too many antibiotics no longer effective, since the mutated bacterial strains are not killed any more by the original antibiotic," Rubloff said.

The team envisions the use of programmable biological microfactories as tools for rapid screening and development of new drugs prior to time-consuming, expensive clinical trials.

"Any lab screening that is faster or more efficient in identifying new drugs could also reduce drug costs and time to market," Rubloff said.

This development advances research funded by the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation and a National Science Foundation Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation grant of $2 million awarded to Rubloff; Greg Payne, director of the UMBI's Center for Biosystems Research; Reza Ghodssi, associate professor with the Clark School's electrical and computer engineering department and ISR; and William Bentley, Robert E. Fischell Distinguished Professor and chair of the Fischell Department of Bioengineering.

Results are reported in a recent issue of the journal Lab on a Chip (vol. 8, pp. 420-430, 2008). Lab on a Chip paper: http://www.rsc.org
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U-Md. Researchers Report Advance in Biological Microfactories for Dru...(microfactory is to develop drugs thatcan...)