Antimicrobial Peptides: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

UC Davis School of Medicine;Charles (Chuck) Bevins is a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. (biochemistry) from the University of Maryland. He completed his clinical training (pediatrics) at the University of California, San Francisco, and his postdoctoral studies with Dr. Michael Zasloff at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda. His group studies innate immune defense mechanisms at mucosal surfaces, with a primary focus on defensin peptides. Research in the Bevins laboratory led to the discovery, in 1991, of the first beta-defensin peptide (originally called tracheal antimicrobial peptide), and to the identification and cloning of the two human Paneth cell defensins, human a-defensin (HD)-5 and HD6. Many of the current investigations in his laboratory seek to understand the biological functions of Paneth cell a-defensins in health and disease.

George Mason University;Prof. van Hoek joined George Mason University in August 2002. She was among the first faculty members to join the newly formed National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases bringing her expertise in Francisella tularensis to the center. She joined The School of Systems Biology as an Assistant Professor in 2005 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2017. Her research program is actively focused on two areas: 1) Microbial physiology, especially biofilms and small-molecule communication in Francisella tularensis. 2) Discovering and developing novel antimicrobial peptides against multi-drug resistant and biothreat bacteria, in particular against gram-negative bacteria. The antimicrobial peptide discovery project is a collaborative effort with Dr. Barney Bishop at GMU. Dr. van Hoek gave a TedXGMU talk on this topic and the team was featured in FreeThink’s video “The Real Mother of Dragons”. Dr. van Hoek has published more than 60 papers and has led or co-led many large research projects, including projects funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and Office of Naval Research as well as Virginia’s Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CIT). Prior to coming to Mason, Dr. van Hoek worked for Roche Molecular Biochemicals (formerly Boehringer Mannheim) as a Research Manager, developing and launching a portfolio of reagents and product support for Roche’s Molecular Biochemicals’ products and systems. Dr. van Hoek received her B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Victoria, Canada, and her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia Department of Microbiology, Charlottesville, VA.

Department of pathology and Microbiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center <a href="https://www.unmc.edu/pathology/faculty/bios/wang.html">Website</a>;Dr. Guangshun Wang is a Professor in the department of Pathology and Microbiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), Omaha, Nebraska. His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the state and industry. Dr. Wang is interested in the identification, characterization, and design of novel antimicrobials to combat drug-resistant pathogens, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses. For this purpose, Dr. Wang has been taking an integrated structural bioinformatics approach. His lab has developed the popular antimicrobial peptide database (APD; https://aps.unmc.edu) and database filtering technology for designing potent peptides with demonstrated efficacy in animal models. As a complementary approach, the lab also uses a structure-based peptide design to obtain potent, stable, and selective peptides against the ESKAPE pathogens. These new antimicrobials constitute interesting leads for developing novel antibiotics or biomaterials to treat or prevent infections. Dr. Wang has edited the book "Antimicrobial Peptides: Discovery, Design and Novel Therapeutic Strategies (2nd ed.)" (CABI, England, 2017), and published over 130 original articles, reviews, and chapters. He has been awarded with six US patents. Dr. Wang also serves as an associate editor for Pharmaceuticals and Frontiers in Microbiology.