MSc by Research in Microbiology - Antimicrobial Resistance and Drug Discovery

University of Leeds

The ability to prevent, treat and cure infectious diseases with antimicrobial drugs is being undermined by the rapid rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in pathogenic microbes. AMR now constitutes one of the greatest threats to global human health, expected to kill 300 million people worldwide and overtake cancer as a cause of death by 2050. Our research seeks to understand in molecular detail the mechanisms by which microbes resist the effect of antimicrobial drugs, and to devise innovative solutions to prevent and treat infections caused by multidrug resistant pathogens. We bring the full weight of the School’s expertise in molecular and structural biology to bear on elucidating the mechanisms of AMR in bacteria and viruses, from defining the genetic determinants responsible through to understanding the biochemical and structural features of resistance mechanisms. We harness this growing mechanistic appreciation of AMR (‘forewarned is forearmed’) in our pursuit of the next generation of antimicrobial therapeutics through a variety of means. These include the identification of new targets for therapeutic intervention, the discovery of novel natural product antibiotics from soil microorganisms, the design of synthetic inhibitors capable of inhibiting specific functions in microbes, and the evolution of artificial antibodies as potential therapeutics.