Lay summary
Infectious diseases are becoming an extreme global healthcare threat as the microorganisms that cause infection are becoming resistant to many of our current drugs. This is a major hauora Māori concern, as infectious disease disproportionately burdens Māori compared to non-Māori. Māori are particularly affected by bacterial and viral infections, and without new drugs to treat these infections we will be facing extremely poor healthcare outcomes in the near future. Despite their role in causing disease, many microorganisms are able to produce compounds (known as natural products) that kill infectious microorganisms. Many of our current drugs that treat infections are derived from microorganisms (such as the widely used antibiotic penicillin, which is derived from a fungus). Different microorganisms produce different natural products, which are encoded by their genes. In this project, I will investigate marine fungi from Antarctica for genes that encode novel natural products that kill bacteria and viruses.