Better understanding of nature’s nanomachines may help in design of future drugs

Many of the drugs and medicines that we rely on today are natural products taken from microbes like bacteria and fungi. Within these microbes, the drugs are made by tiny natural machines known as nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs). A research team has gained a better understanding of the structures of NRPSs and the processes by which they work. This improved understanding of NRPSs could potentially lead to the creation of new potent antibiotics, immunosuppressants and other modern drugs.