Biochemistry

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) which kill bacteria by a fundamentally different mechanism than do traditional antibiotics represent a new trend in the fight against resistant pathogens. Several novel peptides possessing potent antimicrobial activities have been recently discovered in our laboratory. The study will comprise the isolation of novel AMPs from natural sources and the determination of their primary structures by mass spectrometry and Edman degradation. The peptides will be synthesized and screened in a number of biological assays. Peptide structures will be modified to produce synthetic analogs with improved antimicrobial properties. The interactions of fluorescently labeled AMPs with the bacterial and the eukaryotic cells will be studied by fluorescent microscopy. The study of the interactions of AMPs with artificial models of biological membranes and the three dimensional peptide structures assessed by NMR will provide further insight into AMPs action mechanism.