"This is a fantastic opportunity to further develop our technology with preclinical tests".
Novel antisense antibiotic therapeutics
Antibiotic resistance is a big problem for medicine and public health. Velema's research project aims to conduct further tests on a new antibiotic developed in his lab to check if it's safe, how the body processes it, and if it works inside living organisms. The antibiotic uses bacteria's own machinery to deliver the medicine directly inside them.
VelemaLab
Velema’s research group is part of the Physical Organic Chemistry group. The team is harnessing chemistry to tackle problems in biology and medicine. They use the gained knowledge to develop new approaches for combating drug resistance.
NACTAR program
Thanks to NWO funding, four projects into new antibiotics can start, one of this is Velema’s project. Resistance to antibiotics is one of the greatest threats to public health. The NACTAR program focuses on research into new sources and alternatives to antibiotics. A total of nearly 1.6 million euros has been made available together with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. With the research budget, the studies below can be carried out in which the effect of new antimicrobial agents and methods are validated. This can be an important contribution to curing diseases caused by bacteria against which current antibiotics no longer work.
We warmly congratulate Wim with his grant.