Development of antimicrobials based on principles of induced proximity

PROJECT SUMMARY Small molecules have been classically developed to inhibit enzyme activity; however, new classes of small molecules that endow new functions to enzymes via proximity-mediated effect are emerging. Most of these chimeric molecules have been developed in the context of cancer. We propose to build chimeric molecules that recruit the immune system to bacteria. These molecules will be formed by joining together binders of proteins of the complement system and binders of bacteria and exhaustively characterized using biochemical, biophysical, and cell biology experiments. 1