Antimicrobial resistance is now one of the top public health threats facing humanity.
Caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), tuberculosis is an ancient infectious disease that is still a significant cause of death. Increasing resistance of Mtb to antibiotics in recent years has exacerbated the mortality rate of the disease.
To understand the metabolism of drug-resistant Mtb and develop drugs to combat it, a team of researchers from NTU and the Center for Discovery and Innovation Hackensack Meridian Health in the United States started a transdisciplinary platform, called TOPNet (short for Targeting Oxidative Phosphorylation Network), with the Experimental Drug Development Centre hosted at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore.
Recently, a series of compounds developed by TOPNet which could be potential drug candidates to treat drug-resistant TB were licensed for commercialisation to a US-based drug development company.
