Objective 2: Assay Development
To develop Wolbachia-cell line assays compatible with combinational high throughput screening technologies and as a novel tool to screen existing and novel compounds for anti-symbiotic activity.
This objective aims to provide a short to mid-term solution by using alternative antibiotics and antibiotic combinations that are already registered for use in humans.
The first step to be undertaken in the screening aspect of this project is to develop an assay compatible with a high throughput screening system, which has the capacity to test hundreds of thousands of compounds for activity against Wolbachia.
We will develop robust cell based assays in multi-well formats using mosquito cell lines infected with Wolbachia. Different assay designs (see Figure) will be tested to define the most suitable for screening using high throughput systems.
Drugs that show improvement over existing antibiotics will be further tested in worm screens.
