Stephan Hacker – Searching for Weak Spots in Bacteria

Stephan Hacker is an assistant professor of chemical biology at Leiden University, where he is trying to find new ways to develop new antibiotics. He focuses on identifying new weak spots in bacteria.

Why did you choose this specialisation?

‘It stemmed from my postdoc. I asked myself what is important and interesting enough to work on for 30 years. Antibiotic resistance is important, and there is not much development in industry. I plan to remain in academia for the rest of my career. I enjoy working with students and PhD candidates. It is rewarding to watch them grow throughout their doctoral journey. On top of that, I can more or less decide for myself what I want to work on.’

What is the biggest challenge in your work?

‘Identifying what new ways there are to tackle bacteria. I am trying to fundamentally understand what weak spots they have. We primarily use covalent inhibitors. There are quite a number of proteins in bacteria that you can target. It is highly dependent on the bacterium, so we could potentially use them to develop precision antibiotics. Perhaps we can selectively kill the bacterium causing the infection.’

What are your expectations for this research?

‘I want to take a few weak spots and carry out advanced medicinal chemistry. Then I want to demonstrate that it can help in a meaningful way. From there, we can attract interest, take it further, and perhaps set up a start-up. A meaningfully developed starting point for an antibiotic.’