Under the supervision of Prof. Gary Hunter of the Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, these programs illustrate that the capabilities of protein expression and purification techniques can be applied to the production of native peptide constructs. For large scale production these methodologies will prove cheaper than existing methods. There are many documented peptide sequences which have been shown to have antimicrobial activity. Most are perfectly natural, humans themselves produce thirty-two different types of AMP which form an important part of our innate immune system. Two of these have been chosen for initial experiments in the BAC-OFF program. With the rise in microbial resistance to antibiotics, AMPs may well form part of the solution.
Project BAC-OFF financed by the Malta Council for Science & Technology, for and on behalf of the Foundation for Science and Technology, through the Infectious Diseases Programme.
