PROJECT GOALS

Since  their  discovery,  antibiotics  have  changed  the  face  of  medicine, saving millions of lives from deadly infections. However, due to  improper use of antibiotics,  the  phenomenon of antimicrobial resistance has been growing constantly, becoming a pressing global health problem. Antarctica  is  a  rich  source  of  novel microbial  species  with  increased potential  for  discovering  new antimicrobial  compounds. The  project  is centered on such a bacterial strain, isolated during  the  ROICE Romanian expeditions  to   Antarctica,   as  a  candidate  in   the   research   of  novel antibiotics.  

The implementation of AntarcticPharma will lead to:

(i) A  new  bacterial  strain  characterized   on  carbon  source  usage  and enzymatic activities. 

(ii) A fully sequenced and characterized genome of the ROICE36 strain  as a valuable resource for future biotechnological applications. 

(iii) A method to grow the ROICE36 strain for an increased biomass yield. 

(iv) A  method to  obtain the  ROICE36  bacterial  extract. Its  antimicrobial efficiency  will be  tested  against multi-drug resistant pathogens isolated from Romania.

The stakeholders of  AntarcticPharma include researchers, clinicians and pharmaceutical  companies that  are involved in  the quest of finding new antimicrobial compounds.

This work is supported by a grant of the  Romanian National Authority for Scientific  Research  and  Innovation,  CNCS/CCCDI - UEFISCDI, project no. PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2016-1170, within PNCDI III.