CARB-X announced today that it’s awarding $1.2 million to a research team at Harvard University to develop enhanced antibiotics for multidrug-resistant bacteria.

The award to Harvard’s Andrew G. Myers Research Group will fund preclinical development of a new class of antibiotics that target the lipoprotein transport system in multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacterial pathogens—such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae—that cause urinary tract infections, bloodstream infections, and pneumonia. Lipoproteins play a critical role in gram-negative bacteria’s pathogenicity and drug resistance.

“Drug-resistant E. coli and K. pneumoniae cause a significant number of life-threatening infections worldwide, yet the pipeline for novel Gram-negative antibiotics remains dangerously thin,” Richard Alm, PhD, interim chief of research and development at CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator), said in a press release. “This award supports a highly differentiated approach that, if successful, targets these priority pathogens with a narrow-spectrum mechanism designed to overcome resistance without contributing to broader cross-resistance.”

Second CARB-X award

The award is the second that the group has received from CARB-X. In 2024, Myers and his team received $1.2 million to develop synthetically enhanced oral antibiotics for drug-resistant lower respiratory tract and skin and other soft-tissue infections.

“The award from CARB-X allows the Myers Research Group to further advance our work to discover antibiotics to treat infectious diseases emerging in hospitals and the community that are resistant to current therapies,” Myers said of the new award.

Since its founding in 2016, CARB-X has funded 123 early-stage projects designed to treat, prevent, and diagnose antibiotic-resistant infections. Fourteen of those projects are in late-stage clinical development, and three have reached the market. 

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