Vancomycin, VC. Figure by permission from Nature 1999, 397, 567-568.

During the Spring 2015 semester, Graduate Student Matthew Guberman-Pfeffer had been enrolled in Dr. Mark Peczuh’s Physical Organic Chemistry class. In that class, Matthew examined the physical basis behind the difference in affinities of D-Ala-D-Ala and D-Ala-D-Lac terminating peptides to vancomycin. Thus, “Resistance: How VanA strains get away with it,” was born. Part 1 of Matthew’s blog can be found here, with an introduction by Dr. Peczuh here.