Scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, including David Andes, MD, professor, Infectious Disease, have discovered a new antifungal compound found in the microbiome of a sea squirt from the Florida Keys. The antifungal, which the scientists named turbinmicin, efficiently targets multi-drug–resistant strains of deadly fungi without toxic side effects in mice.

The team’s findings were published in an article in the November 20, 2020, issue of Science. The discovery of turbinmicin is the most tangible output yet of the group’s five-year, $30 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to glean useful new antimicrobial drugs from bacteria living in overlooked environments.

This is part of an effort to develop new drugs to disease-causing fungi that have become resistant to the few drugs currently used to kill them.

Read the full article from UW News

Read “Drugs from bugs in creatures of the sea,” a related Perspectives article also published in the November 20, 2020, issue of Science.

Banner: Dr. David Andes. Credit: Clint Thayer/Department of Medicine.