Program Overview
Type: Vanderbilt Initiative Award (ViA)
More than half of the drugs introduced in the last thirty years are either natural products or compounds based on natural products. Unfortunately, the discovery of biologically active natural products has slowed dramatically in recent years because of the limitation of novel microorganisms and the cumbersome process of identification of a single active compound. The Bioeffector Discovery Program is attacking this problem by utilizing novel high-throughput technologies to screen extracts of cave micro-organisms from the mid-South. Initial screening will be targeted against Staphylococcus aureus, the most common cause of infection in the United States and an organism that is increasingly developing resistance to all available treatments. Ultimately, the collection of new natural products will be made available for screening in many biological and disease settings to the entire Vanderbilt community by incorporation into the Vanderbilt High Throughput Screening Facility.
Faculty Participants
Lead Faculty in bold
College of Arts & Science
Brian Bachmann, Professor of Chemistry
School of Medicine
- Eric Skaar, Ernest W. Goodpasture Professor of Pathology