Hevener Laboratory, University of Tennessee - College of Pharmacy

Congratulations to Kristiana and Osama (grad student, postdoc) on their co-authored manuscript on F. nucleatum FabK biochemical and structural analysis. This enzyme is a narrow-spectrum antibacterial target for treatment of periodontal disease while avoiding oral microbiome disruption. Special thanks to our collaborators at Texas A&M and University of Hawaii at Hilo for their contributions, and to several PharmD students who assisted in the studies and were listed as contributing authors. Well done!

Excellent perspective article on target engagement in this issue of J Med Chem.

Target Engagement Assays in Early Drug Discovery In target-based drug discovery, quantification of target engagement is required to build structure–activity relationships and develop a potent clinical candidate. Target engagement data also provides evidence of a drug’s mechanism of action (MoA) which although is not required for approval, can ...

Congratulations to the Palmer Lab at University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Pharmacy on their recent publication in Cell Chemical Biology. We were happy to be a part of this exciting research!

Pantothenate kinase is an effective target for antifungal therapy Fungal infections affect millions of people each year, and the current antifungal armament is inadequate. Regan et al. have demonstrated that pantothenate kinase (PanK) is a valid target for antifungal development. In addition, they report a fungal-selective PanK inhibitor with in vivo antifungal ac...

FDA approves new non-opioid pain drug Discover the world’s best science and medicine | Nature.com

Thanks, Kristiana!

My Marvelous Mentor featuring Kristiana Avad “Empowering, supportive, and passionate,” is how University of Tennessee Health Science Center PhD candidate Kristiana Avad described her marvelous mentor, U...

This caps an outstanding year for the Hevener Lab and our collaborators. We're grateful for this support from the NIH.

Dr. Kirk Hevener Awarded $3.7 Million for Groundbreaking Research on Bacterial Gut Infection Treatment - UTHSC News The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has awarded $3.7 million to Kirk Hevener, PharmD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Pharmacy, for a project to develop new treatments for Clos...

Key FDA approvals in 2024

Key FDA approvals in 2024 2024 authorizations kept a steady clip and gave people some new treatment options

Congrats to Hevener Lab graduate student, Fahad Pavel, on his first author publication in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications - "Biophysical library screening using a Thermo-FMN assay to identify and characterize Clostridioides difficile FabK inhibitors"!

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2024.149740

55 new therapeutics approved in 2023 - here's a nice review in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. Of interest to the I.D. community are:

Cidara (Rezafungin, candidiasis)
Entasis (Sulbactam/Durlobactam ABC pneumonia)
Paxlovid (Nirmatrelvir/Rotonavir, COVID)
Beyfortus (Nirsevimab, RSV).

2023 FDA approvals The FDA approved 55 novel therapeutics in 2023, the second highest count in the past 30 years.

Congratulations to Julian Hurdle and his laboratory at Texas A&M Health Science Center on his recently accepted publication in Nature Communications titled "Decoding a cryptic mechanism of metronidazole resistance among globally disseminated fluoroquinolone resistant Clostridioides difficile". The Hevener laboratory is grateful to have been able to contribute to this excellent work.

FDA approves new antibiotic combination for drug-resistant pneumonia Discover the world’s best science and medicine | Nature.com