David Andes, MD, professor, Infectious Disease, and Tim Bugni, PhD, School of Pharmacy, has been awarded $3.8M over 5 years from the National Institutes of Health-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for a proposal, “Symbiotic-based discovery of turbinmicin, a safe and selective antifungal against resistant fungi.”

Previous work discovered turbinmicin in the microbiome of a sea squirt from the Florida Keys. Turbinmicin is an antifungal compound that was able to target multi-drug-resistant strains of deadly fungi without toxic side effects in mice.

This project is the next step in preclinical development of turbinmicin as an antifungal drug with aims to improve the molecule by making small alterations to its structure that could increase its effectiveness as a drug.

Banner: David Andes, MD, at his desk. Credit: Clint Thayer/Department of Medicine.