Antibacterial Drug Discovery: Some Assembly Required

Our limited understanding of the molecular basis for compound entry into and efflux out of Gram-negative bacteria is now recognized as a key bottleneck for the rational discovery of novel antibacterial compounds. Traditional, large-scale biochemical or target-agnostic phenotypic antibacterial screening efforts have, as a result, not been very fruitful. A main driver of this knowledge gap has been the historical lack of predictive cellular assays, tools, and models that provide structure–activity relationships to inform optimization of compound accumulation. A variety of recent approaches has recently been described to address this conundrum. This Perspective explores these approaches and considers ways in which their integration could successfully redirect antibacterial drug discovery efforts.