Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a critical global health threat. Despite this, clinical antifungal options have remained limited to just five major drug classes for the past century. The widespread misuse of these agents has escalated fungal adaptability, leading to more difficult to treat infections and preventable deaths.
To address this, we develop DR.sTraTeGY, a multicellular yeast research platform designed to transform the study of microbial evolution from static, retrospective analysis into real-time, observable dynamics. This system tracks the evolution of fungal drug resistance and provides a standardized framework, enabling researchers to efficiently map the genomic locations and sequential order of cumulative mutations acquired under selection pressure.
Immediate Research Directions ​
As we found in the Results, a significant number of cell division abnormalities were already present in the ninth generation of tetraploid Grape Yeast. This suggests that even short-term gravity screening is sufficient to induce a substantial number of mutations. Consequently, we performed a longer-term passaging experiment and quantified the percentage of cells exhibiting abnormal division by PI staining. We found that the tetraploid yeast generally exhibited a more widespread incidence of division abnormalities, reaching a relatively high level by the 15th generation. We therefore believe that two weeks will be sufficient for future long-term screening experiments.
Table 1. Statistics of abnormal cell division
| total cell count | Abnormal cell division | Percentage | total cell count | Abnormal cell division | Percentage | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2N d9 | 143 | 0 | 0.00% | 4N d9 | 160 | 3 | 1.88% |
| 2N d15 | 268 | 1 | 0.37% | 4N d15 | 218 | 6 | 2.75% |
| 2N d30 | 241 | 2 | 0.83% | 4N d30 | 260 | 7 | 2.69% |
| 2N d45 | 250 | 0 | 0.00% | 4N d45 | 253 | 7 | 2.77% |
Commercialization ​
We launch a "Kit + Software" integrated platform that overcomes the limitations of traditional endpoint sequencing by enabling real-time tracking and quantitative analysis of fungal resistance evolution dynamics. This solution is strategically aligned with the needs of the Yangtze River Delta's biopharmaceutical industry cluster. Through its modular design, it simultaneously addresses CROs' requirements for both standardized testing and customized research, providing scalable technological support for the development of novel antifungal drugs.
See more details on our Entrepreneurship page.
Safety Concern ​
The application of our product is confined to laboratories within hospitals and research institutions, with no need for deployment in external environments. However, since multicellular yeast is being introduced as a chassis organism for the first time, we have implemented comprehensive Safety measures to prevent its environmental release. In the event of accidental leakage, these protocols enable effective tracking of engineered strains and ensure they pose no significant harm to the ecosystem.
See more details on our Safety page.
Summary ​
Based on experimental Results, our multicellular yeast system can serve as a high-throughput drug screening platform that enables systematic evaluation of how different drug administration sequences influence evolutionary trajectories, allowing rapid identification of optimal combination therapies capable of effectively blocking resistance development through real-time monitoring of resistance mutation pathways. Simultaneously, it functions as an educational and clinical diagnostic tool, providing medical schools with visual models of microbial evolution while assisting hospitals in conducting dynamic analysis of resistance profiles.
