The rise of antimicrobial resistance is a global healthcare threat, and there is an urgent need for new treatments, diagnostics, understanding and ways of working to combat this. Traditional antimicrobial approaches are based on the development of small molecule drugs which target specific intracellular pathways (enzymes) within pathogenic organisms (e.g. disrupting cell wall biosynthesis), and diagnostics are based on collection, culture and inspection of bacterial cultures.<br/>We are exploiting precision macromolecular engineering to synthesise new glycan-presenting materials (glycopolymers/particles/surfaces) which can act as decoys of secreted pathogenic agents, rather than intracellular components. In particular we are overcoming the intrinsically low selectivity of most glyco-materials (e.g. a galactose-bearing polymer can bind many different lectins) by controlling the density and 3-D presentation of the glycan on the material scaffold. I will also show how we can integrate these materials with signal generation units, to enable rapid and low cost detection of infection based on colour changes.<br/>Secondly, I will discuss our progress in developing high-throughput, semi-automated, photochemical screening platforms to identify new anti-microbial polymers. Particular focus is placed on identifying polymers were can disrupt mycobacteria (which includes Mycobacterium tuberculosis), which has a distinct cell wall compared to Gram negative/positive genera. Using simple liquid handling robots, and careful consideration of reaction conditions, we can synthesise and screen libraries of 100’s of polymers enabling identification of materials with emergent properties.

(Glyco)protein-inspired polymers to combat infection

256th National Meeting (2018)

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