Collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline to target NMT in malaria

A red blood cell infected with the malaria parasite.

Imperial and GSK have signed a collaborative agreement to work on the development of antimalarial agents targeting N-myristoyltransferase (NMT).

The project will see researchers in the Tate Group working in collaboration with scientists at GSK's Tres Cantos research centre, which specialises in drug discovery for neglected tropical diseases, to optimise novel malaria parasite NMT inhibitors and explore their mode of action and selectivity.

Our group previously demonstrated that NMT is a highly effective target in malaria, and we also developed the high-throughput screening assay which GSK used to discover the current inhibitor series.