Overcoming natural constraints to develop new vancomycin-type antibiotics

Glycopeptide antibiotics – which include vancomycin – are last-resort antibiotics used in the clinic to treat serious Gram-positive bacterial infections. In this project, my team are utilising a novel chemo-enzymatic formation route that we have pioneered to generate and explore the properties of new vancomycin derivatives. This will allow us to explore the structure/ function relationships of these crucial antibiotics and to overcome growing bacterial resistance against these compounds.