Beyond antimicrobials: new approaches for new hits
Dr. You-Hee Cho, College of Pharmacy, CHA University
Dr. You-Hee Cho is currently a tenured Full Professor at CHA University College of Pharmacy, where he leads the Laboratory of Bioantibacterials (BioABL) for his research on development of platform technology for new-paradigm antibacterials based on the knowledge about host-bacteria as well as bacteriophage (phage)-bacteria interactions. A major strength of his antibacterial research is to exploit small-scale live animal infection models using Drosophila melanogaster that he has harnessed since 2001 to study the virulence and resistance mechanisms of bacterial pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Vibrio cholerae, and Staphylococcus aureus. As a molecular microbiology expert, he has been trying to identify new-paradigm antibacterial chemicals and biologics (phagebiotics and pharmabiotics) in collaboration with his colleagues in chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmaceutics. The topics discussed in this seminar will include the up-to-date information on the new approaches that his lab has exploited to identify antipathogenic (i.e. antivirulence) peptides and chemicals, which inhibit the virulence not the growth of P. aeruginosa.
Antimicrobial activity of a pharmabiotic strain derived from human nasal microflora
Dr. Hee-Won Bae, College of Pharmacy, CHA University
Dr. Hee-Won Bae is currently working with Dr. Cho as a Research Professor at CHA University College of Pharmacy. She got her Ph.D. in 2014 with the research focused on RNA phage biology. She has been revealing various aspects of phage-bacteria interactions regarding host range determinants for the RNA phage, PP7 that infects P. aeruginosa. Her phage research continued in KCDC as a government employee, and then she rejoined BioABL as a Research Professor. With the experience in animal experiments, she is interested in RNA phages and nasal microbiota to develop new phagebiotic and pharmabiotic platforms. Recently, she got a Korean government grant to support the research on pharmaceutical biomaterials for complicated respiratory infections, which requires international collaborations on animal experiments. The pharmabiotic biomaterials could be derived from a new bacterial strain (Staphylococcus epidermidis SE181) that she had identified from the nasal microbiota of healthy human individuals. The tales conveyed in this seminar will include the on-going research outcomes in regards to the potential anti-infective mechanisms of SE181 against P. aeruginosa infections.
