依據衛生署的資料，肺炎在臺灣十大死因中幾乎年年上榜。而導致肺炎菌種之一的克雷伯氏肺炎桿菌(Klebsiella pneumoniae, KP)更是造成臺灣社區和院內感染的前五大致病菌之一。在一些免疫力差的病人(如糖尿病)身上常造成伺機性感染，引起敗血症合併血膿性肝膿瘍，其中有一成病人會伴隨腦膜炎和轉移性眼球炎。最近流行病學調查發現，臺灣因抗生素濫用造成KP菌抗藥性基因突變，甚至衍生出新品種，大大增加了治療上的困難。有鑑於此，因家基因體計畫將KP菌為重點研究菌群之一，本研究驗室則為KP菌功能性結構基因體學群體計畫之一員。根據國衛院蔡世峰博士的基因定序團隊與其他研究組所發現的毒性因子和抗藥性組群，我們挑選出相關標靶蛋白，並將利用旋光光譜儀及核磁共振覺譜儀研究這些標靶蛋白的三維立體結構，以探討結構與功能之關係，期能幫助發展治療KP菌所衍生相關疾病之藥物。

Based on the statistical analysis by the Department of Health, pneumonia is one of the top ten case causing death every year in Taiwan. Klebsiella pneumoniae (KP) is one of the top five pathogenic bacteria that cuase community and hospital infection of pneumonia in Taiwan. In some immuno-deficient patients such as diabetic, KP forms opportunistic infection and causes septicemia combining with Pyogenic liver abscess. It is estimated that ~ 10% of these patients accompany meningitis and metastatic ophthalmitis. Recently, on the basis of the epidemiological investigations, the drug-resistant mutant genes of KP have been found due to the misuse of antibiotics, and even evolve into new strains which make lots of difficulties on therapies. It is therefore that the National Research Programs for Genomic Medicine (NRPGM) lists KP as one of the major bacterial researches that should be pursued. Our laboratory, a member of the KP functional and structural genomics projects of Academia Sinica, has selected several target proteins related to virulence and drug-resistance factors, as discovered by Dr. shih-Feng Tasai in NHRI, for structural study. A variety of biophysical techniques, especially high-resolution NMR experiments, will be carried out on these target proteins. It is hoped that the 3D solution structures of these target proteins as well as other biophysical properties could proved valuable information for drug development on therapeutics related to Klebsiella pneumoniae.