Compound Profiling und Screening

The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the spread of microorganisms which are resistant to the most common antibiotics an increasing threat to the well-being of the world population. Not only is the number of patients increasing whose infectious disease can no longer be treated, but also in some circumstances patients with other severe diseases will not be treated if the therapy is accompanied with suppression of the immune system and thus, an increased risk of infection. Thus, new active agents for the treatment of infectious diseases are urgently needed, as well as the responsible use of existing antibiotics. Prerequisites for the discovery of new drugs are relevant biological screening assays together with compound libraries of broad chemical diversity. We perform primary screens, based either on own protocols or on protocols developed by cooperation partners and transferred to our infrastructure. In cooperation with partners we also perform secondary assays to optimize first primary hits.

Leader

Prof Dr Ursula Bilitewski

In order to develop therapies for fighting infections caused by new pathogens or resistant microorganisms not only we need new drugs but, more importantly, we need to identify new targets for these drugs to act on.

Ursula Bilitewski

Ursula Bilitewski studied chemistry at the University of Münster, earning her Ph.D. at the Institute of Physical Chemistry. After spending another year at Münster as a post-doc, she moved to Braunschweig in 1988, where she became part of the HZI – which at that time was called the GBF.

In 1994, she habilitated in biochemistry at the Technische Universität Braunschweig and, since 2002, is an adjunct professor for biochemistry. Her initial research focus, which was on establishing microscale bioanalytical systems, has since shifted to drug research. Her work concentrates on molecular mechanisms and on identifying potential drug targets.

Since 2016, Bilitewski is head of the „Compound Profiling und Screening (COPS)“ research group.

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