Taylor Duval

The objective of this proposal is to develop an antibody antimicrobial conjugate (AAC) that will selectively eliminate emerging microbial threats such as P. aeruginosa and C. albicans. In cases of severe infection, these microbes are treated with last-line drugs that are toxic to both the pathogen and the host. To broaden therapeutic options in these cases, novel antimicrobials have been developed. However, these drugs typically harbor the same unfavorable toxicity profiles as their predecessors, which decreases their likelihood of clinical incorporation. We theorize that, by inducing high local concentrations of a drug in regions of infection (as opposed to administering the active drug systemically), we can decrease the toxicity and rescue the use of abandoned FDA approved antimicrobials or novel therapeutics disregarded due to their off-target effects.