Understanding the interaction mechanisms of antimicrobial peptides and bacterial membrane

Excess usage of antibiotics worldwide has led to the formation of many multi-drug-resistant strains of some of the most dangerous pathogens. This has created an urgency for the development of the replacement of antibiotic molecules. Antimicrobial peptides are molecules with long and short amino acid sequences that can be deployed to resist bacterial activities. The AMPs adsorb on bacterial cell-membrane and damage the membrane leading to the disintegration and rupture of the cell-membrane. The mechanism of AMP and cell-membrane interactions has long been studied experimentally and computationally. However, a general mechanism has not been proposed. In this project, we will be using state-of-the-art AMP database such as, dAMP, lAMP, etc., to choose AMP candidates based on their antimicrobial capabilities, design their 3D structure computationally and use atomistic and coarse-grain molecular dynamics simulations to study interactions between AMP candidates and model bacterial membrane structure.