Determining mechanisms of protein antibiotic killing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

We are rapidly approaching a crisis in the treatment of bacterial infections, a consequence of the steep rise in antibiotic resistance and the lack of any new antibiotics. The situation is acute for multidrug resistant Gram-negative bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa which causes life-threatening infections. An alternative strategy to develop new antibiotics is to utilise the potent narrow spectrum protein antibiotics produced by bacteria for intraspecies competition. In P. aeruginosa these antibiotics are known as pyocins and the aim of this project is to discover how pyocins are able to cross the bacterial outer membrane and kill cells.