PhD defence R. (Rick) Oerlemans

Borrow or build: harnessing drug repurposing and structure-based design to address infectious diseases

Each year, infectious diseases cause millions of deaths worldwide and pose a major threat to public health. Some, like COVID-19, spread rapidly, while others, like tuberculosis, persist for long periods and can develop resistance to medications. This makes the development of effective treatments a significant challenge.

In this study, we explore two approaches: repurposing existing drugs and designing new drugs based on the structure of key pathogen proteins. We present examples of both methods.

We examine how existing and new drugs bind to a crucial COVID-19 protein, which could aid in developing better treatments. Additionally, we solve the 3D structure of an important M. tuberculosis enzyme for the first time and demonstrate how an inhibitory molecule interacts with it. This could contribute to the development of new treatments for tuberculosis.