Prof. Broadbelt & Prof. Tyo endeavor to significantly decrease the price of drugs that treat HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. Many important drugs are too expensive to be purchased in resource-poor countries. Current chemical synthesis methods for producing many of these drugs require expensive reagents and have very low yields. Prof. Broadbelt and Tyo will develop novel biosynthetic processes to make these same compounds. Biosynthetic processes use cheap reagents (i.e. sugar) and precisely control chemistry. By developing more efficient biosynthetic production, the project could dramatically expand the use of these drugs in poor countries, and reduce the mortality and spread of diseases.
Gates Grand Challenges Initiative