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Professor Becker Awarded NIH R01 Grant

Professor Daniel Becker has just been awarded an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for synthesizing inhibitors of the sodium-dependent NADH: ubiquinone oxidoreductase (Na⁺-NQR) as antibiotics with a new mechanism of action.  This research is directed toward the discovery of more effective antibiotics for treating cholera and to combat antibiotic resistance. The enzyme complex Na⁺-NQR is the main ion transporter in many pathogenic bacteria, including Vibrio cholerae, the causal agent of cholera, a devastating gastrointestinal disease with a worldwide distribution that has developed multidrug-resistant phenotypes. This research combines Becker’s medicinal chemistry team in the Loyola Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in a collaborative effort with the biomedical research team of Professor Oscar Juarez of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago.