METABOLITE ANNOTATION AND IDENTIFICATION IN WILD AND MODIFIED CELL STRAINS USING UNTARGETED AND INTEGRATED NMR APPROACH

• Grant number: 24/13937-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Organic Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Ljubica Tasic
• Grantee: Thyerre Santana da Costa
• Supervisor: Oscar Millet
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Centro De Investigacion Cooperativa En Biociencias, Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/02338-0 - Metabolite annotation and identification in wild and modified cell strains using untargeted and integrated NMR approach, BP.DD

Abstract

Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis (C. pseudotuberculosis) is a Gram-positive bacterium with pathogenic potential in both animals and humans. This facultative intracellular parasite is the etiological agent of caseous lymphadenitis (CLA) in sheep and goats (biovar ovis) and, to a lesser extent, in horses and cattle (biovar equi). Infection by C. pseudotuberculosis in sheep and goats results in significant economic losses due to the substantial reduction in wool and milk production. To address the challenges posed by C. pseudotuberculosis, potential therapeutic targets include proteins involved in maintaining redox metabolism, nucleic acid repair, and essential metabolic pathways, such as vitamin synthesis. This project proposes the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to investigate biochemical pathways and key reactions during microbial infection in host cells. Untargeted and comparative metabolomic analyses of human cell cultures or specific host cells will be conducted under various conditions: absence of the target protein (control cells), presence of the target protein, and presence of the target protein previously incubated with selected peptides (identified via phage display).