Investigating the roles of Toxin/Antitoxin module in pathogenic Neisseria (360G-Wellcome-210226_Z_18_Z)

£99,861

Pathogenic Neisseria species continue to cause harmful infections in humans. Neisseria meningitidis causes life threatening meningitis and septicaemia infections, particularly in infants, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae causes the sexually trasmitted infection gonorrhoea. There is an urgent need to further study these pathogens particularly N. gonorrhoeae as gonorrhoea cases are on the rise and it is increasingly in the news due to the sharp increase in cases with resistance to antibiotics, leading to the fear that gonorrhoea could soon become untreatable. We will investigate the role that toxin/antitoxin modules play in Neisseria biology. In other pathogens, these systems have been observed to include a toxin able to stall bacterial replication and an antitoxin that neutralises the toxin's activity. When under stress, the antitoxins are degraded leaving a free toxin to arrest bacterial growth. In this non-growing state bacteria are tolerant to antibiotic challenge. There is very little known about how the toxins of Neisseria function and what their role is in infections. This proposal will address this lack of knowledge by discovering the biological systems targeted by the toxins and assessing their effect on Neisseria metabolism.

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Grant Details

Amount Awarded 99861
Applicant Surname Hare
Approval Committee Science Seeds Advisory Panel
Award Date 2017-12-04T00:00:00+00:00
Financial Year 2017/18
Grant Programme: Title Seed Award in Science
Internal ID 210226/Z/18/Z
Lead Applicant Dr Stephen Hare
Partnership Value 99861
Planned Dates: End Date 2020-11-30T00:00:00+00:00
Planned Dates: Start Date 2018-03-01T00:00:00+00:00
Recipient Org: Country United Kingdom
Region South East