Gerard Wright

Key Research Areas
Associated Researchers
Associated Organizations

Recent Research Projects

Exploring and expanding natural product chemical diversity

2015/16-2019/20 • $315,000 • PI
Microbial secondary metabolites are genetically encoded bioactive molecules assembled by dedicated metabolic pathways that are highly regulated and tuned to environmental cues. As products of evolution, they are unique elicitor molecules that perform critical tasks for the producing organisms....

Operations and Maintenance Support for the Centre for Microbial Chemical Biology

2016/17-2017/18 • $300,000 • PI,CO
No summary

Pathway-specific cell-based high throughput screening for natural product antibiotics

2014/15-2016/17 • $322,237 • PI,CO
No summary

Expanding natural product chemical diversity

2010/11-2014/15 • $390,000 • PI
Natural products are compounds that are produced by living organisms. These chemicals regulate numerous aspects of cellular life including intra-species (quorum sensing) and inter-species (mutualism, parasitism, etc.) interactions. Furthermore, they are rich sources of toxic molecules that serve...

Overcoming antibiotic resistance through the inhibition of aminoglycoside phosphotransferases (APH).

2013/14-2014/15 • $169,101 • PI,CO
Multidrug resistant microbes have become one of the top global health challenges and place a massive burden on theCanadian health care system. One approach to overcome this problem involves inhibiting the enzymes responsible forconferring resistance to the antibiotic. We have recently discovered...

Evaluation and characterization of novel inhibitors of beta-lactamases

2013/14 • $25,000 • PI
Resistance to antibiotics is a growing crisis that has major implications for the healthcare, agricultural andpharmaceutical sectors. Despite a tremendous need for new drugs and there are few new leads being pursued bythe traditional large pharmaceutical industry. This void creats a great...

Activity-based protein profiling to confirm the indel-binding properties of small molecule inhibitors to novel Staphylococcus aureus and Leishmania donovani drug targets

2013/14 • $25,000 • PI
Infectious diseases remain among the top causes of morbidity and mortality across the globe. Despite thispressing clinical need there has been little innovation in drug/target interactions. The dominant paradigm forsuccessful anti-infective drugs has been the targeting of pathogen-specific...

Isothermal titration calorimeter

2012/13 • $103,412 • PI,CO
The funds will be used to purchase an isothermal titration calorimeter (ITC). An ITC is an instrument that measures the heat absorbed or released as a consequence of mixing two substances. Since virtually all processes are accompanied by a change in heat, the useful of this method is extremely...

Investigation of antimicrobial activities of novel iron chelators

2011/12 • $25,000 • PI
There is a pressing need for new antimicrobial agents for use in human and animal medicine and in crop protection. However over the past several years there has been a lack of innovation and effort to meet this need. Chelation Partners have developed proprietary chemistry that has great...

Patents

PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF 2-[2-(2-AMINO-2-CARBOXY-ETHYLAMINO)-2-CARBOXY-ETHYLAMINO]-SUCCINIC ACID (AM-A) AND ANALOGS AND DERIVATIVES THEREOF

The present application relates to processes for the preparation of the aspergillomarasmine A (AM-A) compound and analogs and derivatives thereof. The features of this process involves the use of a cyclic activated serine synthon in the construction of the poly-amino acid backbone. Also included are certain novel analogs of AM-A along with compositions comprising these compounds and uses thereof.
Related applications: WO2016CA51259