Lay summary
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global health crisis, making once-treatable infections increasingly difficult to cure as antibiotics lose their effectiveness. Drug-resistant bacteria already cause over a million deaths each year worldwide, and some of the most dangerous pathogens, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, form biofilms that protect them from both antibiotics and the immune system.
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), short molecules used by many organisms as part of their natural defences, are widely viewed as promising alternatives to antibiotics. However, current discovery strategies rely on a critical but untested assumption: that these peptides work because they come from biological genomes, rather than because of their basic chemical properties.
This project directly tests that assumption by comparing genomic peptides with carefully designed synthetic peptides that share the same chemical features. By isolating biological origin as the only difference, the research will clarify what truly drives antimicrobial activity in AMPs.