Fungaffine drugs: Exploring high-affinity peptides as anti-fungal agents

Our vision is to provide new selective antifungal leads for the pharmaceutical industry to address an unmet medical need.

About the project

Fungal pathogens significantly influence animals, plants, ecosystems, and human health causing extinctions of species, disturbances as well as a threat to food security. Fungal infections constitute a major health concern, and it is estimated that one billion people acquire such every year, with 1.7 million deadly outcomes despite the availability of antifungal drugs. Still, fungi remain underestimated as pathogens. 

Project information

Primary investigator (PI)

Project period

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All current antifungal drugs cause severe side effects and resistant strains have developed. Consequently, antifungal agents with high selectivity and that are less prone to development of resistance are urgently needed. Furthermore, the commercial potential of anti-fungal medicine is high. A broad-spectrum anti-fungal agent without side effects has the potential to outcompete current drugs and gain a significant market share.

We offer MSc and BSc projects. The main methods include yeast cloning and growth, protein expression and purification, high-throughput biochemical and biophysical assays, where the focus can be adjusted according to your interest.

Fig. 1. Overview of project activities organized in work packages. WP1 Yeast strains and nanodisc samples. WP2 Peptide identification. WP3 Functional inhibition. WP4 Structural and biophysical characterization.
Fig 2. Cluster analysis of identified cyclic peptide binders to fungal H+-ATPase targets. Based on abundance on sequence characteristics, we choose candidates for further characterisation.
Fig. 3 Identification of a fungal H+-ATPase inhibitor with an IC50 of ca. 1 µM. We employ high-throughput biochemical and biophysical assays to screen and develop cyclic peptide inhibitors.