News

Money coming to the Auclair Lab from the other end of the world!

Published: 24 November 2016

Professor Auclair was recently awarded funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia. The two co-applicants involved in this application, Prof. Auclair and Prof. K. J. Saliba from The Australian National University, will  share approximately $185,000 per year for 3 years to work on "Understanding and targeting coenzyme A biosynthesis and utilization in Plasmodium falciparum". Key to this success was an established collaboration between the two research groups that led to the discovery of triazole-containing pantothenamide mimics which show low nanomolar growth inhibition of P. falciparum at the red blood stage (potency similar to that of chloroquine). These compounds represent not only a new structural class of potential antimalarials, but they also act by a novel mechanism: they are coenzyme A antimetabolites. The funding secured from NHMRC will be used to cover the costs of further medicinal chemistry and P. falciparum studies, as well as preclinical investigations.

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