Development of Single Molecule Nanobiosensors for the Search of Antibiotic and Antimalarial Compounds

The discovery of new bioactive compounds to treat microbial infections is an ever increasing need as a result of the constant evolution of resistance by the infectious agents, notably malaria and pathogenic bacteria. By using a nanotechnology approach based on Chemical Force Microscopy, a derivation of Atomic Force Microscopy that allows the measurement of interaction forces between single molecules, we are searching for enzyme inhibitors that are good candidates for the development of new antimalarials and antibiotics. The main advantage of this high-throughput screening approach is that by monitoring single molecule interactions novel inhibitory molecules can be detected that otherwise escape identification by current methods requiring high concentrations of the sought-after compound.