The concerns about antibiotic resistance are well known and indeed have made headlines in the mainstream press. Here is a chance to help find the next generation of antibiotics.

Do you have interesting compounds sitting on the shelf? Perhaps you would be interested in having them screened for antibiotic activity for free?

The Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery would like to hear from you, their goal is to screen compounds from academic research groups from anywhere in the world for free.

The requirements are pretty minimal

We ask for 1-2 mg of pure compound which will be used for primary screening, hit confirmation, and if active will be used for a broader antimicrobial screening, cytotoxicity and a check for its purity. We require all compounds to be soluble in water or DMSO and to be shipped as dry material in appropriate containers, such as 1-2 mL Eppendorf tubes. For larger collections we can arrange plates or tube-racks.

In the primary screen they test against against key ESKAPE pathogens, E. coli, K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus (MRSA), as well as the fungi C. neoformans and C. albicans. The ‘ESKAPE’ pathogens that are responsible for two-thirds of all health care-associated infections and resistant strains of these bacteria represent the greatest unmet need in antibacterial drug development.