Multidrug-resistant bacteria are a major threat to human health. After numerous effective drugs were discovered in the "golden age" of antibiotics in the mid-20th century, new developments have drastically decreased, while strains resistant to common antibiotics are on the rise. Because many of the antibiotics currently in use focus on a fairly narrow range of cellular targets, multiple resistance strategies have already evolved. Considering the large number of essential proteins in bacteria, there is enormous potential to decipher previously unknown antibiotic targets that do not yet exhibit resistance strategies.

The goal of Prof. Sieber's group is to identify unprecedented antibacterial targets beyond the capabilities of current antibiotics and to exploit them for chemical manipulation.

To this end, a multidisciplinary strategy is employed that includes techniques from synthetic chemistry, functional proteomics, microbiology, and protein biochemistry.