New antibiotic discovered with the potential to treat drug-resistant bacteria
Researchers in the School of Biological Sciences (SBS) at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington have discovered a new antibiotic called ‘ambocidin’, which has the potential to treat infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria.
![Fermenters](https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/science/about/news/2025/new-antibiotic-discovered-with-the-potential-to-treat-drug-resistant-bacteria/fermenters.jpg/ls_medium.jpg)
Researchers Dr Jeremy Owen, Dr Hung-En Lai (a Post Doctoral researcher in SBS), Dr Helen Woolner, Rory Little, Ethan Woolly (PhD candidate), and Associate Professor Robert Keyzers conducted an analysis of a bacterial genome, surveying for genes that build antibiotics. Using this “genome mining” approach, and synthetic biology techniques, the team was able to identify a promising compound which they termed ‘ambocidin’.
The genes that produce ambocidins were “silent” when the bacteria that harbours them was cultivated in the lab. This meant that they were not naturally produced in laboratory conditions. To access these hidden antibiotics, the researchers transferred the relevant genes into several different host bacteria, eventually finding success and isolating four new antibiotic compounds.
A particularly exciting feature of ambocidins is that they can kill drug-resistant bacteria.
“Ambocidin can kill drug-resistant bacteria like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) by targeting the bacterial cell wall in a way that is different from existing antibiotics,” Dr Owen explains.
Another interesting feature of ambocidin is that it retains effectiveness in the presence of pulmonary surfactant (which lines the inside of the lungs), meaning it could potentially be developed into a therapy for bacterial pneumonia.
In ongoing work, the research team are looking to develop even more potent and effective antibiotics using synthetic organic chemistry to build derivatives ambocidin.
For more information, see the research paper "Calcium-Dependent Lipopeptide Antibiotics against Drug-Resistant Pathogens Discovered via Host-Dependent Heterologous Expression of a Cloned Biosynthetic Gene Cluster."