{"id":15,"date":"2021-01-07T22:19:04","date_gmt":"2021-01-07T22:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mupages.marshall.edu\/sites\/longlab\/?page_id=15"},"modified":"2026-04-07T10:38:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:38:48","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mupages.marshall.edu\/longlab\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our research program is focused on the discovery and mechanistic characterization of novel therapeutic strategies to combat multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial and fungal pathogens. We emphasize both direct-acting antimicrobial agents and antibiotic adjuvants targeting vancomycin-resistant Gram-positive bacteria and azole-resistant fungi. A central component of our work has involved repurposing disulfiram and designing structurally related analogs as antimicrobial and potentiating agents. In vancomycin intermediate and vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus<\/em> (VISA, VSRA<\/a>), disulfiram functions as an adjuvant that significantly lowers the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of vancomycin, restoring susceptibility to this first-line glycopeptide. Mechanistic investigations in methicillin-resistant S. aureus<\/em> (MRSA<\/a>) indicate that disulfiram disrupts central glucose metabolism, suggesting metabolic reprogramming as a driver of impaired cell wall homeostasis and reversal of vancomycin resistance phenotypes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fungal pathogens, disulfiram was also found to exhibit intrinsic fungicidal activity against clinically relevant Candida<\/em> species. Notably, its antifungal efficacy demonstrates copper-dependent synergism, consistent with a metal-mediated mechanism that enhances intracellular stress responses and results in a fungistatic-to-fungicidal transition. These findings position disulfiram as a dual-function antimicrobial scaffold with both redox-active and metal-chelating properties. In parallel, we evaluated structurally related (dithioperoxo)thiolate-based analogs that demonstrated activity against azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus<\/em><\/a> and MDR Candida auri<\/em>s<\/a>, highlighting their potential as a next-generation antifungal platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Highlights of our research publications<\/a> <\/span>from various lab projects are presented below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Projects in the lab have been supported by NIH-NIAID, NASA-EPSCoR, WVCTSI, and the Marshall University Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our research program is focused on the discovery and mechanistic characterization of novel therapeutic strategies to combat multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial and fungal pathogens. We emphasize both direct-acting antimicrobial agents and antibiotic adjuvants targeting vancomycin-resistant Gram-positive bacteria and azole-resistant fungi. A central component of our work has involved repurposing disulfiram and designing structurally related analogs as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-15","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mupages.marshall.edu\/longlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mupages.marshall.edu\/longlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mupages.marshall.edu\/longlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mupages.marshall.edu\/longlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mupages.marshall.edu\/longlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":191,"href":"https:\/\/mupages.marshall.edu\/longlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1449,"href":"https:\/\/mupages.marshall.edu\/longlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15\/revisions\/1449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mupages.marshall.edu\/longlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}