News
In Search of New Antibiotics to Counter Antibiotic Resistance
Published on March 31, 2026
IRIC’s Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) is part of the project “Designing Antibiotics Targeting Klebsiella Using Artificial Intelligence,” which has received US$3.8 million (approximately CA$5.3 million) from the Gates Foundation.
A class of bacteria becoming increasingly resistant
The Enterobacteriaceae family of bacteria comprises about 100 species whose resistance to treatment has increased in recent years. Among them, Klebsiella pneumoniae accounts for nearly 20% of deaths attributable to antibiotic resistance worldwide. Led by Professors Yves Brun (Department of Microbiology, Infectious Diseases, and Immunology, Université de Montréal) and Mike Tyers (Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto), the project aims to develop new antibiotics to combat this devastating bacterium.
A team with complementary expertise
To tackle the challenge posed by Klebsiella pneumoniae, Professors Brun and Tyers have assembled a multidisciplinary team. Based on their observations, the microbiologists will feed data into predictive and generative AI models to propose promising new molecules for targeting the bacterium. This is where the DDU, led by Professor Anne Marinier, comes in: its members will synthesize and optimize the identified compounds. Their antibacterial activity will then be tested.
