My laboratory will utilize a chemical biology and medicinal chemistry bapproach to study anti-infective biological pathways and validate novel therapeutic targets as part of a drug discovery effort. My work utilizes whole-cell and fragment-based hit identification followed by whole-cell, enzymatic and biophysical data collection to elucidate how the molecules interact with their respective targets. This combination of contemporary fragment-based methods along with classical whole-cell assays will increase the chemical space that can be interrogated in search of novel anti-infective scaffolds. This crucial step will increase the likelihood of discovering new anti-infective therapies to help combat the growing problem of drug resistant pathogenic bacteria and the lack of safe and effective neglected tropical disease treatments.