A team headed by Dr. Claudia Jessen-Trefzer of the University of Freiburg’s Institute for Pharmaceuticals Sciences has identified a transport protein in mycobacteria that is responsible for the uptake of the nutrient L-arabinofuranose. The lead authors of the study, Miaomiao Li of the Institute for Pharmaceuticals Sciences, Christoph Müller of the Institute for Biochemistry and Klemens Fröhlich of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Cell Research at the University of Freiburg, used a novel approach that could simplify the identification of transport proteins in mycobacteria in the future. This class of proteins could play a key role in the development of new types of medications to tackle mycobacteria and treat diseases like tuberculosis in humans. The researchers’ study is published in the journal Cell Chemical Biology.