Atomic details of antimicrobial peptides at work in live cells

该项目旨在开发确定活细胞中具有生物重要性的分子的详细结构的方法，以更好地了解生物分子结构与疾病的关系。生命分子在原子级的结构通常是通过模型系统中的晶体或溶液研究来表征的。然而，许多生物重要分子的结构取决于它们所处的环境。通过使用新的仪器和标记方案，该项目计划使用核磁共振方法来研究活细菌和人类细胞中的抗生素和抗菌肽。我们的目标是解决这些分子如何穿过细胞膜以及生物分子结构与活性的关系，这可能会推动生物技术和治疗耐药感染的发展。

This project aims to develop methods to determine the detailed structure of biologically important molecules in live cells to better understand how biomolecular structure is related to disease. The structure at the atomic level of the molecules of life is usually characterised by crystal or solution studies in model systems. However, the structure of many biologically important molecules depends on their environment. Using new instrumentation and labelling schemes, the project plans to use nuclear magnetic resonance methods to study antibiotics and antimicrobial peptides in live bacteria and human cells. The goal is to resolve how these molecules cross cell membranes and how biomolecular structure is related to activity, which may advance development in biotechnology and therapeutic treatments against drug-resistant infections.