Master of Science Fredrik Garnås Rylandsholm will Wednesday June 19th, 2024, at 12:15 hold his disputas for the PhD degree in Science. The title of his thesis is:
"Structural characterisation and drug-lipid interaction by NMR spectroscopy"
Since the discovery of antimicrobial agents and the extensive use in infection treatment and prevention, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a rapidly increasing problem. The World health organisation (WHO) surveys a wide range of human pathogens, including several multi-resistant pathogens causing infections with high morbidity and mortality. Emphasising the urgency of new treatment strategies, is the fact that WHO estimates that by 2050, antibiotic resistance will surpass deaths due to cancer, with up to 10 million people dying each year. There is a sore need for new alternatives and strategies. One prominent alternative is antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). AMPs are an integral part of life, as hostdefence peptides, and are found in all domains of life. Bacteria have lower chance of developing resistance against AMPs, partially because of their diverse modes-of-action. This is therefore a promising strategy to prolong the potential usage of AMPs in future therapy. Since the discovery of AMPs, there has been extensive work revealing their modes-of-action and connections between structure and effect. As they are a diverse group of molecules, and their targets are even more complicated, there are still many things that are not yet fully understood. Expanding our knowledge regarding AMP-target interactions, future research can potentially resolve the emerging challenges in infection control and treatment, broadening the currently available treatment options.
In this dissertation for the degree of philosophiae doctor, this work focuses on both refining methodological approaches and generating a new understanding about selected AMPs. Efforts towards developing a robust platform for further investigation of AMPs looking for complementary agents to antibiotics or adjuvating strategies to aid for more effective antibiotic treatment strategies have been initiated. For that purpose, finetuned instrumental approaches are crucial for driving our research further in this field and uncovering new knowledge.
Professor Annette Bayer, Department of Chemistry, UiT (intern member and leader of the committee)
The disputas and trial lecture will be streamed from these sites:
Disputas (12:15 - 15:00)
Trial Lecture (10:15 - 11:00)
The thesis is available at Munin here.