The Chemical Biology of Infectious Disease center recruits, mentors and supports investigators across the University of Kansas, KU Medical Center, Kansas State, Wichita State and other regional partners as they address urgent challenges in infectious disease and antibiotic resistance using chemical-biology approaches.

Two recent publications from EMBL Heidelberg’s Mahamid Group have improved our mechanistic understanding of protein production and transport across the membrane in a minimal bacterium and visualised the complex interactions between molecular processes. Both studies lean into the increasing body of research that explores macromolecular systems in the larger context of intact cells, rather than in isolation. The researchers studied the ‘factories' in cells that read genetic instructions and build proteins, revealing extensive cross-talk between these processes. They also investigated protein transport across the membrane and beyond the cell, discovering and characterising a previously unknown protein-folding machinery at the cell surface. Together, the research illuminates how different cellular processes interconnect and serves as a proof of concept for future studies in more complex cells.

A previously unknown protein, hidden in RNA thought not to encode proteins, helps cells divide correctly. The RNA molecule that encodes the protein also has a function of its own in cell division. The findings from the University of Gothenburg could provide new insights into what goes wrong in conditions such as cancer.

Efficient amide bond synthesis is essential for biology, medicine and materials chemistry. However, conventional approaches often require expensive or harsh reagents. In a new study, researchers demonstrated that dichloromethane, a widely used solvent, can serve as an effective coupling reagent for direct synthesis of amides from carboxylic acids and amines. The approach has broad scope, produces relatively benign byproducts, and is practical for scale-up, offering a potentially simpler strategy for amide synthesis.

Following the 2011 the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, freshwater and marine threespine stickleback hybridized in a newly formed wetland in Otsuchi, Iwate, Japan. Nine years of genomic tracking revealed rapid elimination of marine-derived genomic regions within ten generations, identifying key reproductive-isolation loci controlling freshwater survival and migration to the sea. The study also found that widespread genetic incompatibilities contribute to genome-wide elimination, providing rare real-time insight into the genetic mechanisms maintaining species boundaries.