Structure Biology to Understand Molecular Mechanisms in Tuberculosis

Thursday, 30 June 2011 at 11:45

Add to Calendar ▼2011-06-30 11:45:002011-06-30 12:45:00Europe/LondonStructure Biology to Understand Molecular Mechanisms in Tuberculosis SELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

Tuberculosis has regained a global threat, mainly because of the emergence of hyper-resistant strains against front line antibiotics and a major problem in HIV co-infections. Classical target-oriented drug discovery has not fulfilled the premises because of the complexity of the infection process in the human host. We have set up a program to determine a substantial, relevant fraction of the complete proteome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 3D, by solving high-resolution structures using X-ray crystallography. We will present examples where the knowledge of these 3D structures nevertheless provide important insight into molecular mechanisms, leading to potential drug discovery. We will also demonstrate on some examples, how structural biology can be used as a posteriori validation tool, i.e. for potential lead compounds where targets were initially unknown.