Consortium for Structure-Guided Microbial Resistance Targets (cSMRT)

The NIAID-funded Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGCID) and the Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases (CSGID) are collaborating to form a Consortium for Structure-guided Microbial Resistance Targets (cSMRT) with the ultimate goal of leveraging the resources of the Structural Genomics (SG) centers and collaborate with pharmaceutical companies and other interested parties to deliver on the challenging goals of translating basic research discoveries into Early-Leads and ultimately, candidates for clinical development.

The NIAID funded structural genomics centers have determined more than 2000 protein structures and additionally have ~7,000 purified proteins. Many of these targets were entered into the structural genomics pipeline on the basis of genetic essentiality screens and potential novel mechanisms of action, thus making them attractive targets for combating drug resistance. With encouragement from researchers attending the Workshop on Structure Guided Antibiotic Development at the March 2015 Keystone Symposium on Gram-Negative Resistance, the CSGID and SSGCID have successfully formed the cSMRT consortium. With target nominations from pharma partners, the SG centers aim to determine the 3D protein structures of potential anti-microbial drug discovery targets and make all enabling reagents and supporting data available to the scientific community. Fifteen structures of requested targets have been deposited in PDB.

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