Invited Seminar: Fast, Smart Therapeutic Solutions for Pandemic Response Date: Tuesday June 7 @ 09:00 – 10:00 Abstract: The rapid rise of multidrug-resistant (MDR) superbugs and novel strains of viruses and the declining antibiotic and antiviral pipeline are serious challenges to global health. Rational design of therapeutics can accelerate development of effective therapies against infectious pathogens and dampen the impact of pandemics. In this talk, I will describe multi-pronged systems, synthetic biology, and nano-biotechnology based approaches being devised in our lab to rationally engineer therapeutics that can overcome antimicrobial resistance in MDR bacteria as well as respond to SARS-CoV2 virus by developing antivirals in real-time. We have engineered antisense therapeutics that inhibit desired genes in a species-specific manner for targeted inhibition. Using this approach, we have built a platform that can accelerate therapeutic development in less than a week. We have shown that we can create novel antibiotics that can kill a range of WHO (World Health Organization) top priority I MDR pathogens, as well as reduce infection from SARS-COV2. I will also present a nano-biotechnology based approach involving development of a unique semiconductor material-based quantum dot-antibiotic (QD ABx) which, when activated by stimuli, release reactive oxygen species to eliminate a broad range of MDR bacterial clinical isolates. We have validated both these platforms in number of pre-clinical studies and continue to advance these therapeutic modalities further. The platforms and inter-disciplinary approaches presented in this talk offer novel methods for rationally engineering new therapeutics to combat disease challenges. Supplemental information:

• Photoactivated indium phosphide quantum dots treat multi-drug resistant bacterial abscesses in vivo
• Transcriptome-based design of antisense inhibitors potentiates carbapenem efficacy in CRE E. coli
• Multiplexed deactivated CRISPR-Cas9 gene expression perturbations deter bacterial adaptation by inducing negative epistasis

Presenter Biosketch: Dr. Anushree Chatterjee is the co-founder of Antimicrobial Regeneration Consortium (ARC) Labs, Sachi Bioworks, Inc, and an Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at University of Colorado Boulder. Prior to joining UC Boulder, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Theoretical Biology and Biophysics group at Los Alamos National Laboratory studying gene regulation of hepatitis C virus. She completed her Ph.D. in Chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota on understanding molecular mechanisms of antibiotic resistance transfer in clinical superbugs. She completed her Bachelor and Master of Technology in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. The overarching goal of her research is to develop strategies for rationally engineering next-generation smart therapeutics that can eliminate multi-drug resistant superbugs, with the ultimate goal of creating therapies that can evade evolution of drug-resistance in microbes, as well as create real-time therapeutic solutions to respond to viral outbreaks. To achieve this goal her lab uses a combination of interdisciplinary approaches including synthetic biology, systems biology, and nanobiotechnology to design smart therapeutics. Anushree is the founder of the Antimicrobial Regeneration Consortium Labs, an initiative to educate, engage and empower scientists as well as people from all walk’s life for pandemic preparedness. Anushree’s research has been featured by academic and federal institutions such as the Material Research Society, Faculty of 1000, and the National Science Foundation, as well as popular national and international media outlets including BBC, CGTN America, and Voice of America. Anushree has received the DARPA Young Faculty Award, ACS Infectious Diseases Young Investigator Award, Rising stars recognition by Frontiers of Chemistry, New Inventor of the Year award, Provost’s Faculty Achievement award, and the prestigious William M. keck Foundation grant award. She is the associate editor at Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. Presenter Website: Chatterjee Lab Presenter Email: chatterjee@Colorado.EDU