Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Drug resistant strains of bacteria and fungi, or "superbugs," are on the rise, killing tens of thousands of people each year. There is a critical need for new classes of antibiotics and a shortage of such new compounds in drug company pipelines. With the help of a $50,000 Pepsi Refresh grant, the MARBIONC marine biotechnology research program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington plans to investigate new antibiotics that may target these superbugs.

You can help by voting for the MARBIONC grant proposal at www.refresheverything.com/newantibiotics or texting 105313 to Pepsi (73774) every day throughout January.

"Some of the most important antibiotics we use today have been isolated from terrestrial microbes," said Wendy Strangman, associate research professor with MARBIONC. "Our plan is to collect new species of antibiotic producing microbes from unique marine environments known as frontier habitats. In the laboratory, we will culture these new marine microbes and extract their antibiotic chemicals to use in drug testing against these lethal superbugs."

On its research staff, MARBIONC has world experts in microbial culturing and antibiotic discovery. The Pepsi Refresh grant will allow these researchers to explore the largely untapped biodiversity of marine micro-environments to isolate microbes that may yield new antibiotic cures. Marine microbes are an ideal potential antibiotic source for because they are in constant competition for access to light, nutrients and space to grow. One of the ways they compete is by producing chemicals to kill off their competitors, Strangman said. These same chemicals often make excellent antibiotics because they have been evolutionarily selected for their potency and specificity in killing other microbes.

The Pepsi Refresh Project accepts grant proposals at its website each month from people, businesses and organizations who want to make a positive impact in their communities or in the world. Proposal amounts range from $5,000 to $250,000 and funding is based on votes from the general public. Pepsi accepts the first 1000 submissions for the following month of voting, and then allows individuals to vote for up to 10 of their favorite ideas each day.

Strangman encouraged community members to vote online or by text as often as possible to help MARBIONC receive this funding award.

"This will be an incredible boost for our research program," said Strangman. "Unfortunately, during difficult economic times one of the first items to be cut from federal grant programs is money for field work to collect specimens. There is very little money available for that purpose right now and that's what we need."

Strangman hopes to organize a trip to a research station in Belize to collect marine samples of very small organisms, such as algae. Because MARBIONC can use just a small amount of marine material to grow additional cultures in its labs, this type of collecting has very low impact on the ocean environment.

"We can collect many samples from a scoop of sand or a drop of seawater," she said.

Media contact:
Dana Fischetti, media relations manager, 910.508.3127 or fischettid@uncw.edu