Chancellor's Colloquium: Superbugs: Evolutionary Insights from the Protein Data Bank

September 11, 2018

Stephen K. Burley
Director, Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics Protein Data Bank
Henry Rutgers Chair and University Professor
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Antimicrobial resistance constitutes a global public health emergency. Most antibiotics target bacterial proteins that have no counterparts in human cells. However, as antibacterial drugs continue to be misused and overused, development of resistance to these agents is accelerating worldwide. Drug resistant bacteria, or "superbugs," kill tens of thousands in the U.S. annually.

Unless current trends are reversed, this number will increase ten-fold by 2050, transforming how we approach cancer chemotherapy, routine surgery, childbirth, etc.

Professor Burley will discuss how the "superbugs" came about and what we can do to combat them.

September 17, 2018

Superbugs: Evolutionary Tales from the Protein Data Bank (PDF 65.4 MB)