Novel biologically active molecules through a combined application of bioinformatics and genetic engineering

The proposed research project is intended to further develop and test a unique drug discovery platform created at the NTNU/SINTEF (Norway) and the Institute of Biomedical Chemistry (Russia), which is composed of a powerful new bioinformatics tool and a te chnology for gene manipulation of antibiotic-producing bacteria. The latter technology is based on an extremely versatile genetic system, which can be used for production of millions of structurally diverse molecules. The newly developed software generate s chemical structures of such molecules in silico, allowing subsequent structure-function based evaluation of their potential biological activities. The selection criteria for certain types of activities can be set up, helping to single-out most promising lead compounds. These molecules shall be then produced through tracking back the molecular structures to the genetic system responsible for their biosynthesis, and engineering of the bacterial cells in a corresponding manner. Production of such new molec ules, their purification and biological testing shall provide the proof-of-principle for the new concept, and will pave the way for commercialisation of this new technology.