A natural compound is a substance produced by bacteria, animals, fungi or plants that fulfills a biological function.
Detailed description
A large part of the currently used active substances is derived from natural compounds, which have been optimized by scientists for their application in humans. They fulfill a special function in the producing organisms like for example the defense against predators. Using high-throughput methods, scientists screen different organisms and use the identified substances to compile substance libraries, which can then be searched for specific functions.
Alexander Titz’s research group focuses on biofilms, which is a slimy layer that bacteria produce to physically protect themselves against the immune system and against antibiotics. For example, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a dreaded hospital pathogen, is a member of this group of bacteria and uses ...
The majority of successful antibiotics are derived from microorganisms and the potential of finding new agents in this group is yet to be exploited. Using genome sequencing, scientists have frequently discovered gene clusters with potential antibiotic activity. However, synthesis does not occur ...
Professor Marc Stadler’s research group examines cultures of rare types of fungi and bacteria, predominantly from tropical regions, for their potential to develop new antibiotic substances. Thanks to international partnerships, these substances are isolated, identified and subsequently transferred ...
Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS)
The challenge of antibiotic drug development today is the discovery and optimisation of novel bioactive compounds that do not show cross-resistances with clinically applied antibiotics, ideally due to a novel mode of action (MoA) which adresses unexploited microbial targets. In the case of ...
From chemistry to biology to medicine—during the course of his career, Mark Brönstrup repeatedly crossed the boundaries between these disciplines. So it comes as no surprise that today he is head of
One of them speaks of “treasures, waiting to be found” while the other focuses on new “compounds”, but both Timo Niedermeyer and Leonard Kaysser mean the same thing and have a mutual goal: As
DZIF researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) develop new agents and methods for the localisation and treatment of multi-resistant bacteria. Molecular probes utilise the iron
