Antibiotic resistant pathogenic bacteria are one of the most critical problems for human health today. Here we used a combinatorial library approach to screen thousands of peptide dendrimers for antimicrobial activities, and identified a new class of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in which the positive charges and hydrophobic groups acting as membrane disruptors are provided by the multiple N-terminal leucine residues of the dendrimers.
Current research addresses the optimization of these dendrimers towards pathogenic bacteria such as P. aeruginosa.

This work was carried out in the group of Prof. Jean-Louis Reymond.

References:

• M. Stach, N. Maillard, R. U. Kadam, D. Kalbermatter, M. Meury, M. G. P. Page, D. Fotiadis, T. Darbre, J.-L. Reymond;
  "Membrane disrupting antimicrobial peptide dendrimers with multiple amino termini"
  Med. Chem. Commun., 3, 86-89, (2012); doi:10.1039/c1md00272d.