A cure for MRSA?

Jan 16 2007 By Paul James, The Journal

Professor uses computers to analyse killer bacteria

While at Newcastle University, Professor Malcolm Young initially attracted more than £10m research funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and other organisations, to turn his ideas into practice.

He set up e-Therapeutics in May 2005 - setting out immediately to see if a cure for MRSA could be found.

Instead of traditional drugs research, with chemists and biologists testing in laboratories, e-Therapeutics uses computers to mathematically analyse bacteria to find its weaknesses.

The systems identify chemical compounds which can attack the proteins responsible for diseases growing and spreading.

Prof Young said: "People in the past have discovered drugs using chemistry and biology.

"Most of these people are chemists and biologists. What they're not is mathematical, complex-system scientists. We're starting from a place they're not thinking about, and don't know much about.

"We're able to predict what will affect a biological system. In order to do that you need maths and a lot of computers."

"The conventional ways have tried to find MRSA medicines and failed," he added.

He said his team chose MRSA as an area of research because there is medical need and "secondly, because it was hard and nobody had done it."

Prof Young explained: "This came from a sweep against specific proteins we knew were in the resistant bugs.

"We then tested it in the laboratory and were delighted with the results."

The techniques employed at e-Therapeutics are now being used to develop a host of new drugs, which could even be used to combat cancer.

Dr Roy Drucker, Medical Director of e-Therapeutics, added: "We're very encouraged by this medically important success, and we're now going to pursue other areas where medical need hasn't been met by conventional drug discovery, such as other drug-resistant infectious diseases and malignant melanoma."