# Development of Natural Product Inspired Adjuvants to Treat Tolerant Infections

> **NIH NIH R41** · SYNOXA SCIENCES, INC · 2021 · $283,828

## 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 adjuvants based on the marine
natural product synoxazolidinone B to treat Gram-positive orthopedic joint infections. These
scaffolds have the potential to clear biofilm-implicated recalcitrant infections based on preliminary
in-vitro data. 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 disrupt
biofilms, thereby functioning to clear biofilm associated 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:** 10153695
- **Project number:** 5R41AI152873-02
- **Recipient organization:** SYNOXA SCIENCES, INC
- **Principal Investigator:** Joshua G. Pierce
- **Activity code:** R41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $283,828
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-05-01 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10153695

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10153695, Development of Natural Product Inspired Adjuvants to Treat Tolerant Infections (5R41AI152873-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10153695. Licensed CC0.

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