Understanding the dynamics of Beta-lactam antibiotic resistance using neutrons

The most important mechanism of resistance to the clinically vital beta-lactam antibiotics involves their degradation by beta-lactamase catalysed hydrolysis. Beta-Lactamase inhibitors (BLI) have been developed and studied in detail by crystallography. There is however a poor understanding of how BLIs affect the dynamics of beta-lactamases, including mutants that are resistant to BLIs, but which do not have a clear effect on classical kinetics. We propose to address this knowledge gap by collaborative work employing neutron scattering studies on already available beta-lactamases and mechanistically different types of established and new BLIs.