Lipophagoids as innovative therapeutic tools of precision medicine against multi-drug resistant bacteria

The “assegnista” will be involved in the PRIN 2022 project funded by MUR. In particular, she/he will be involved in the following tasks:

1) production and purification of phage endoglycosidase, an enzyme that specifically cleaves the capsular polysaccharide of the clinical strain of interest, the gene of which was cloned into an expression vector inserted into E.coli;

2) characterization of the enzymatic activity of the purified endoglycosidase against the bacterial capsule and bacterial biofilms;

3) evaluation of the cytotoxicity of phage endoglycosidase and other phage proteins, purified by another group involved in the project;

4) evaluation of the biofilm disrupting potential of endoglycosidases;

5) biological characterization of liposomes composed by i) the endoglycosidase linked to the external leaflet of liposomes and ii) a reporter molecule (Green Fluorescent Protein, GFP) entrapped in the internal compartment. They will be tested for their hydrolytic activity against the capsular polysaccharide, their biofilm disrupting ability and their cytotoxic activity against eukaryotic cells.