Harnessing the insect microbiome to discover the next generation of antibiotics for bacterial pathogens

• Grant number: 25/02027-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: July 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Pharmacy - Pharmacognosy
• Agreement: University of Illinois
• Principal Investigator: Mônica Tallarico Pupo
• Grantee: Mônica Tallarico Pupo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (FCFRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• City of the host institution: Ribeirão Preto

Abstract

Drug-resistant pathogens are among the most significant global threats to human health. Although microorganism-derived natural products (NPs) have supplied nearly 75% of our current arsenal of antibiotics, the rising rate of resistance to these therapies is greatly outpacing the discovery of new drugs. In over a century of antibiotic discovery, researchers have predominantly employed a serendipity-guided approach to mine the environment for these drugs. This has significantly limited the chances of discovering promising leads. To address this problem, we propose a more targeted approach to antibiotic discovery based on evolutionary principles that leverage expertise of investigators at the University of Sao Paulo (chemical ecology of insect-associated microbiomes) with expertise at the University of Illinois Chicago (antibiotic screening and discovery). Our team proposes to utilize mass spectrometry methods developed at UIC to mine insect-associated microbiomes for bacterial taxa that encode for the production of antibiotic NPs (Aim 1). The team will screen these taxa for their ability to inhibit a diverse panel of bacterial pathogens in order to identify leads that exhibit either narrow- or broad-spectrum antibiotic activity. In order to strengthen institutions in our partnership, significant reciprocal knowledge and technology transfer will be undertaken (Aim 2). In addition to short-term transfer of wet lab and bioinformatics expertise, UIC will host a workshop on MS-based bioinformatic discovery of bacterial taxa at USP (Year 1), while USP will host a workshop focused on insect-associated microbiome methodology at UIC (Year 2). These outputs will generate significant preliminary data that will support the submission of larger government and foundation grants in year two of the program. (AU)