Money coming to the Auclair Lab from the other end of the world!

Professor Auclair was recently聽awarded funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia.聽The two co-applicants involved in this application, Prof.聽Auclair and Prof.聽K. J. Saliba from The Australian National University,聽will聽聽share approximately $185,000 per year for 3 years to work on "Understanding and targeting coenzyme A biosynthesis and utilization in Plasmodium falciparum". Key to this success was an established聽collaboration between the two research groups that聽led to the discovery of triazole-containing pantothenamide mimics which show low nanomolar growth聽inhibition of聽P. falciparum at the red blood stage (potency similar to that of聽chloroquine). These compounds represent聽not only a new structural class of potential antimalarials,聽but they also act by a novel mechanism: they are coenzyme A antimetabolites. The funding secured from NHMRC will be used to cover the costs of further medicinal chemistry and P. falciparum聽studies, as well as聽preclinical investigations.