In collaboration with colleagues from the Universities of Munich and Dortmund, Dr. Elias Akoury has co-authored a paper in the prestigious Angewandte Chemie, investigating how bacteria utilize a chemical “message,” c-di-AMP (cyclic diadenylate monophosphate), to regulate growth and activate disease-related genes. Using solution NMR spectroscopy and biophysical chemical techniques, the researchers found that when this message binds to its partner protein, PstA, it prompts flexible regions of the protein to change shape. These shifts finetune protein interactions, providing insights into antibiotic-resistant infections.