# A biophysical assay targeting an essential bacterial gene

> **NIH NIH R43** · NUBAD, LLC · 2021 · $294,506

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The world is rapidly heading towards a pre-1940’s scenario when it comes to fighting infectious disease.
Antimicrobial resistance is a growing problem on a global scale, greatly hampering our abilities to quell
worldwide epidemics such as tuberculosis and malaria, as well as the simple staphylococcus infection .
The proposed project is significant because unless innovative strategies are developed to
produce robust and effective new classes of antibiotics, health care costs will continue to climb
and we will completely lose our ability to combat even the most common infection. Current
antibiotic treatments originated predominantly from natural products produced by fungi and bacteria that
were able to inhibit the growth of other organisms, usually by inhibiting cell wall synthesis or maintenance
or by inhibiting protein synthesis. Since penicillin was first isolated by Fleming in 1929, most of the
subsequent generations of antibiotics remain very similar to the original natural products, wit h functional
groups modified to increase their activity across a broader range of pathogens and decrease their side
effect profiles. Oxazolidones, glycopeptides, -lactams, and quinolones show some promise for the
future, but Gram-negative bacterial infections still remain problematic.
Cases of multidrug-resistant (MDR, resistance to 2-3 classes), extensive drug resistance (XDR, resistance to
most classes except colistin or tigecycline) and even pan drug resistance (PDR, resistance to all classes)
nosocomial bacterial infections have skyrocketed in recent years, and the emergence of pan drug-resistant
isolates are making these infections increasingly difficult to treat. Hospital-acquired infections like these
account for up to 4% of all hospital stays in the United States and are incredibly diverse in causative pathogen,
antibiotic resistance profile, and severity. A significant cause of nosocomial infection is the Enterobacteriaceae
family, which includes Gram-negative bacilli that can be commensal or pathogenic. Enterobacteriaceae have
a widespread clinical and economic impact due to the diversity of infections they cause; this family causes
many infections such as pneumonia, bloodstream infections (BSIs), urinary tract infections (UTIs), and intra-
abdominal infections (IAIs). The World Health Organization (WHO) lists carbapenem-resistant
Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) as having a critical need for novel antibiotics on their Priority Pathogens list.
Because the mortality of these multi drug-resistant infections is between 30 and 50% and there is such difficulty
in finding viable treatments, the need for novel therapeutics for these pathogens must be addressed.
Nucleic acids are promising avenues for drug design, both as therapeutics and as targets. Targeting heavily
conserved RNA sequences and structures, in bacteria (Enterobacteriaceae), and involved in proliferation and
survival of bacteria, is a promising approach. Using our proprietary probes,...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10324513
- **Project number:** 1R43AI165042-01
- **Recipient organization:** NUBAD, LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** sandra Paige story
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $294,506
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-07-20 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10324513

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10324513, A biophysical assay targeting an essential bacterial gene (1R43AI165042-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10324513. Licensed CC0.

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