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In search of the "magic bullet": using phages, proteins and RNA against pathogens – LOEWE Projects together with ProLOEWE on the MS Wissenschaft
What role do phages, proteins, and RNA play in modern anti-pathogen research? This question is the focus of the exhibit that LOEWE Projects and ProLOEWE will be presenting on the MS Wissenschaft from May to October this year.
The medicine of the future uses computer analyses and high-throughput methods to discover new targets for pathogens – from chemical agents to biological molecules that bind specifically to proteins or RNAs. This is leading to innovative strategies in the fight against antibiotic resistance. Phage therapy is a particularly promising approach: Phages are viruses that eliminate bacteria and are considered an encouraging answer to resistant germs. Modern mRNA methods and custom-designed phages are among the most important innovations in this field today.
As early as the beginning of the 20th century, Paul Ehrlich coined the term „magic bullet“ – drugs that find their target in the human body and act there with high selectivity. Modern research uses precisely this principle: "Our 3D models show where drugs dock onto proteins or RNA – like a key that fits the right lock – and what building blocks phages consist of", explains Prof. Katharina Höfer, pharmaceutical microbiologist at the University of Marburg, LOEWE Top Professor and scientist involved in the Cluster of Excellence M4C (Microbes-for-Climate).
"Here with us, visitors can discover docking sites themselves, insert active ingredients into the appropriate pockets, and even design their own phages", says Christof Wegscheid-Gerlach, a scientist at Philipps University and director of the Chemikum in Marburg.
The exhibit was created through a collaboration between the Marburg Pharmacy Department, the DFG-funded Research Training Group GRK 2937 "Nucleotide Metabolism in Microbes", several LOEWE research projects, and ProLOEWE, the network of the LOEWE research projects. It demonstrates how basic research, technology, and societal relevance converge – and what the medicine of the future might look like.
For over 20 years, the MS Wissenschaft has been traveling on German and Austrian rivers and canals as a floating science center – this year focusing on the theme "Medicine of the Future". Its hallmark: participation instead of observation. The MS Wissenschaft is an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and Wissenschaft im Dialog.