MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London
Science for Health
Elaine Davis group project:
Potential new drug targets
The proteins encoded by genes that are essential either for growth or for virulence represent potential new drug targets. However, a number of factors need to be investigated in order to select suitable targets to be pursued in detail. One factor is how much inhibition is required to see the phenotype, which can be addressed by expressing the gene at varying levels. Another factor is whether inhibition by small molecules is feasible. We are conducting studies to address these issues for selected targets.
Some early work was funded by the MRCT Development Gap Fund (grant A853-0032) and some of our current studies are funded by the EU FP7 programme within the consortium NATT (contract no 222965).
Collaborators
- Dr. D. Taylor, Dr. K. Ansell and Dr. A. Levy, Assay Development and Screening Group, MRC Technology, London
- Dr. S.J. Smerdon, Division of Molecular Structure, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London
- Prof. P. Herdewijn, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Prof. J. Chattopadhyaya, Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala, Sweden
- Dr. R.S. Upadhayaya, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Pune, India
- Prof. S.H.E. Kaufmann, Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany
Selected publications
- Curti, E; Smerdon, SJ and Davis, EO (2007)
Characterization of the helicase activity and substrate specificity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis UvrD.
Journal of Bacteriology 189, 1542-1555 PubMed abstract
Davis group
Recent publications
Research projects
- Gene regulation
- DNA repair
- Potential new drug targets
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