Bacterial infections represent a major public health problem of broad concern, augmented by increasing occurrence of strains resistant to antibacterial agents. In order to develop new chemotherapeutic strategies to overcome infections, it is necessary to understand fundamental processes relevant for bacterial survival in detail.

The bacterial cell wall exerts important protective functions against host defenses and antibiotics; its biogenesis is a preferred target for the development of antibacterial agents because it includes several essential pathways for virulence and survival. Despite its great importance, structural, mechanistic and fundamental biochemical aspects of many proteins participating in its biosynthesis are scarce.

Our research combines in vitro and in vivo activity assays, together with high-resolution structures of membrane proteins important for several cell wall biochemical pathways, with the aim to provide an understanding of their molecular mechanisms and describe potential modes of activity modulation and inhibition.