CO-ADD is a global open-access screening initiative to discover new antibiotics, by testing the significant and rich chemical diversity held outside of corporate screening collections. CO-ADD provides unencumbered free antimicrobial screening for any interested academic researcher. CO-ADD has been recognised as a novel approach in the fight against superbugs by the Wellcome Trust, who provided initial funding through their Strategic Awards initiative. Chemists in academia and research organisations have compounds ‘sitting on shelves’ that were not designed as antibiotics and would not otherwise be screened for antimicrobial activity. These compound libraries are screened at no cost against a key panel of drug-resistant bacterial strains. So far we have screened over 340,000 compounds from 350 research groups in 45 countries.

Website

https://www.co-add.org/

Organisation type

Part of University Research Institute

Number of research staff

Up to 20 research staff

Address

Level 7N, Queensland Bioscience Precinct, Building 80, St Lucia QLD 4072

Strengths and capabilities

• antibacterial testing
• antifungal testing
• antimicrobial characterisation
• >1000 reference and clinical isolates for testing

Facilities and major equipment

• Robotic Screening Equipment
• Compound Handling Facilities for medium to high throughput screening;
• Microbiology Facility
• Cell Biology Facility
• PC2 and PC3 labs
• Anaerobic chamber
• Analytical LC/MS (ELSD)
• Preparative HPLC
• Analytical NMR
• Nanopore whole genome sequencing

Lead researchers

• lead researcher Blaskovich world leader in the discovery and development of new antibiotics, non-antibiotic therapies and diagnostics to detect and treat resistant bacterial and fungal infections. He has secured funding from the 3 major highly competitive international schemes focused on antimicrobial resistance (Wellcome Trust, CARB-X, GARDP).  Blaskovich’s research has led to >140 publications, 11 patent families with >50 granted patents, >$30M in funding, and recognition as a Highly Cited Researcher.

Achievements of the centre

• 2023 – Highly Commended Finalist (CO-ADD team) – Research Australia Data Innovation Award
• 2022 – Finalist (CO-ADD team) – Australian Infectious Diseases Centre Eureka Prize
• 2016 – Antibiotic Guardians Awards (Research category) by Public Health England, and UQ Award for Excellence in Innovation (CO-ADD team)
• CO-ADD data underpinned a high-profile paradigm-changing discovery that metal complexes provide a promising sources of antimicrobials (Chem Sci 2020 11, 2627, doi.org/10.1039/C9SC06460E), opening up a new field of research
• established open access database

Key science sectors

More information about the sectors this centre is involved in:

• Biotechnology
• Health and medical