Small Molecule Antibiotics Inhibit Distinct Stages of Bacterial Outer Membrane Protein Assembly

There is a clear need to develop novel broad-spectrum antibiotics to address the global problem of antimicrobial resistance. Multiple compounds that have strong antibacterial activity have recently been described that appear to inhibit the activity of the b arrel a ssembly m achinery (BAM), an essential complex that catalyzes the assembly (i.e., folding and membrane insertion) of outer membrane proteins (OMPs) in all Gram-negative bacteria.