Precious Findings in mud

HKI Junior Research Group discovers new antibiotics

| by Christine Vogler

Gulmericin A, one of the new antibiotics discovered by Markus Nett and his team

Markus Nett and Sebastian Schieferdecker from the Junior Research Group Secondary Metabolism of Predatory Bacteria at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knöll Institute (HKI) have isolated novel antibiotic substances from mud-dwelling predatory bacterium Pyxidicoccus fallax. The compounds, which they termed Gulmirecins, have shown promising activity against gram positive bacteria. Similar substance were discovered in parallel at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) and the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research in Braunschweig. The scientists are now working together on further characterising these natural products.

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