Infectious Disease and Drug Discovery/Delivery
Infectious disease continues to make a major mark on the world's population by introducing new, as well as re-occurring, diseases on a regular basis.
Despite the depth and power of modern medicine and basic science, significant gaps exist in our ability to predict, to understand, and to control these human scourges. Purdue University has a distinguished track record in studying the basis of infectious pathogens and in developing compounds that interrupt their life cycles. Some of these strengths lie in the Departments of Chemistry and Biological Sciences.
Our world-class structural biology group uses imaging techniques, such as crystallography and electron microscopy, to probe the life cycles of viruses, and more recently bacterial pathogens. Why? Because form determines function. The goal is to discovery the geometry of macromolecules such as viruses and bacteria in order to understand how they work and can be controlled. The group has made important discoveries that have altered our perception of these infectious agents, and they have opened new doors for exploring intervention therapies. They have been joined by a group of microbiologists who study pathogen-host interactions at every level from molecule up to animal model.
Our chemists are renowned for developing, or have already developed, a wide variety of molecules that represent new antibiotics, inhibitors against some of the most potent agents and toxins, such as anthrax, and antivirals, of which today there are remarkably few. Our chemists have also developed general platforms for targeting these agents to the site of attack within the body.
The chemists and biologists at Purdue are working together and synergizing their efforts with exciting possibilities. This approach will impact other research groups on campus, such as Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacy, and Engineering, so that a coordinated and comprehensive plan for infectious disease drug discovery/delivery can be implemented with national and worldwide impact.
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