News Release

Scripps and Trius team up to develop new antibiotics with US Department of Defense grant

Effort to focus on libraries of new marine biomedical sources discovered by Scripps researchers

Grant and Award Announcement

University of California - San Diego

Marine Samples

image: Marine samples being readied for study in the laboratory of William Fenical. view more 

Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

In an effort to tap into the vast potential of the oceans as a source for novel medical treatments, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), a part of the Department of Defense (DoD), has awarded San Diego-based Trius Therapeutics, Inc. a four-and-a-half year contract worth up to $29.5 million to collaborate with Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego for the development of novel antibiotics directed against microorganisms that cause serious infections.

Trius will use its proprietary Focused Antisense Screening Technology (FAST) to identify the targets of antibacterial compounds from marine natural product libraries discovered by William Fenical, Distinguished Professor of Oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Director of Scripps' Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine.

A pioneer in the field of marine biomedicine, Fenical has led efforts to explore the oceans in search of novel microbial sources that can lead to the development of new cures for a variety of diseases. Expeditions to Fiji, the Bahamas, and just off the Scripps Pier, to name a few destinations, have yielded promising drug compounds to treat cancer and other illnesses. The oceans, which remain largely unexplored, offer a broad diversity of environments that Fenical and his colleagues are examining for novel organisms and unique chemical structures.

Under the new DTRA award, Trius will apply its structure-based drug design capabilities to optimize antibacterial compounds for activity against biodefense pathogens such as Yersinia pestis, Francisella tularensis and Burkholderia pseudomallei. Trius believes that these compounds also will be active against drug-resistant pathogens involved in hospital-acquired infections.

"We are now facing an epidemic because drug resistance is growing at an alarming rate," said Fenical. "The oceans are a huge resource where biodiversity is greatest on our planet. The biomedical potential comes from plants, animals and microbes that have unique genetic compositions."

"The underlying objective is to identify new compounds for treating infections caused by pathogens that can be used as bioweapons," said Jeffrey Stein, chief executive officer of Trius and a Scripps Oceanography alumnus. "New antimicrobial compounds and mechanisms of action are likely to have a commercial benefit as well, in an age where bacterial pathogens are acquiring resistance to existing antibiotics in both the hospital and in the community."

Stein added, "William Fenical and his team at Scripps offer a unique resource in tapping marine microorganisms for the discovery of powerful new antibiotics to address these needs. We are marrying the natural product research resources at Scripps with Trius' expertise in target discovery and structure-based medicinal chemistry in an effort to identify molecules with high potential for product development. Together with Scripps, Trius is leveraging billions of years of evolution inherent in natural products with the most advanced tools in drug design and optimization."

###

Scripps Institution of Oceanography: scripps.ucsd.edu

Scripps News: scrippsnews.ucsd.edu

Scripps Institution of Oceanography, at UC San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest and most important centers for global science research and education in the world. The National Research Council has ranked Scripps first in faculty quality among oceanography programs nationwide. Now in its second century of discovery, the scientific scope of the institution has grown to include biological, physical, chemical, geological, geophysical and atmospheric studies of the earth as a system. Hundreds of research programs covering a wide range of scientific areas are under way today in 65 countries. The institution has a staff of about 1,300, and annual expenditures of approximately $155 million from federal, state and private sources. Scripps operates one of the largest U.S. academic fleets with four oceanographic research ships and one research platform for worldwide exploration.


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.