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Money coming to the Auclair Lab from the other end of the world!
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Professor Auclair was recently聽awarded funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia.聽The two co-applicants involved in this application, Prof.聽Auclair and Prof.聽K. J. Saliba from The Australian National University,聽will聽聽share approximately $185,000 per year for 3 years to work on "Understanding and targeting coenzyme A biosynthesis and utilization in Plasmodium falciparum". Key to this success was an established聽collaboration between the two research groups that聽led to the discovery of triazole-containing pantothenamide mimics which show low nanomolar growth聽inhibition of聽P. falciparum at the red blood stage (potency similar to that of聽chloroquine). These compounds represent聽not only a new structural class of potential antimalarials,聽but they also act by a novel mechanism: they are coenzyme A antimetabolites. The funding secured from NHMRC will be used to cover the costs of further medicinal chemistry and P. falciparum聽studies, as well as聽preclinical investigations.