BIOCHEMISTRY: Bacterial Drug Design

Biochemistry by design.

Creationists are attempting to use biochemistry to win acceptance for their doctrine in the public mind and especially in state-funded schools. Biochemist Michael Behe is a major figure in this effort. His contention that certain cellular structures and biochemical processes - bacterial flagella, the blood-clotting cascade and the vertebrate immune system - cannot be the products of evolution h...

Studying Sigma-Core Binding of Bacterial RNA Polymerase by LRET: Biochemistry and Drug Discovery

Biochemistry of Bacterial Multidrug Efflux Pumps

Bacterial pathogens that are multi-drug resistant compromise the effectiveness of treatment when they are the causative agents of infectious disease. These multi-drug resistance mechanisms allow bacteria to survive in the presence of clinically useful antimicrobial agents, thus reducing the efficacy of chemotherapy towards infectious disease. Importantly, active multi-drug efflux is a major mec...

Biochemistry and genetics of bacterial bioluminescence.

Bacterial light production involves enzymes-luciferase, fatty acid reductase, and flavin reductase-and substrates-reduced flavin mononucleotide and long-chain fatty aldehyde-that are specific to bioluminescence in bacteria. The bacterial genes coding for these enzymes, luxA and luxB for the subunits of luciferase; luxC, luxD, and luxE for the components of the fatty acid reductase; and luxG for...

Chemistry and biochemistry of some biologically active bacterial lipids.

Work, which was begun in the author's laboratory in 1948, on the chemistry of various lipid fractions of Mycobacteria and other acid-fast micro-organisms, has led to the identification and elucidation of the chemistry of a number of compounds having unusual structures and interesting biological activities. The principal compounds studied are branchedchain high molecular weight fatty acids, gl y...