# Development of Single Agent Antibiofilm Antibiotics

> **NIH NIH R41** · SYNOXA SCIENCES, INC · 2020 · $298,326

## Abstract

Project Summary
Natural products have served as a productive source of drugs over the past decades and have
represented, or been the inspiration for, a majority of antimicrobial compounds that have entered
the clinic. The goal of this proposal is to develop novel antibacterial agents based on the marine
natural product lipoxazolidinone A to treat recalcitrant Gram-positive infections. These scaffolds
have the potential to clear biofilm-implicated recalcitrant infections, including persistent tissue
infections such as chronic wound infections, chronic osteomyelitis, chronic rhinosinusitis and
endocarditis. These biofilm-implicated infections are tolerant to traditional antibiotics and
represent a significant clinical need since up to 80% of human infections involve biofilm-
associated microorganisms. Few small molecules have been isolated that have the potential to
not only disrupt biofilms, but also act as an antibiotic – thereby functioning to clear biofilm
associated infections. We believe there are significant advantages to a single agent treatment
over an adjuvant therapy for the treatment of these slow-growing, antimicrobial tolerant infections.
Herein, we propose to develop a class of compounds that is capable to addressing the treatment
of biofilm associated infections and generate the key data necessary for a go/no-go decision to
advance these molecules toward a Phase II pre-clinical study.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10081566
- **Project number:** 1R41AI155280-01
- **Recipient organization:** SYNOXA SCIENCES, INC
- **Principal Investigator:** Joshua G. Pierce
- **Activity code:** R41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $298,326
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-06-11 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10081566

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10081566, Development of Single Agent Antibiofilm Antibiotics (1R41AI155280-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10081566. Licensed CC0.

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