Author: gd_support

Congratulations to Dr. Eftychia Eva Kontou who successfully defending her PhD Degree on 8th of March, 2023 with title Metabolomics for Specialized Metabolites. Big thanks to the examiners, supervisors and colleagues for participating the event in person and online.

Dongsoo Yang, postdoctoral researcher at KAIST Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (PI Dr. Sang Yup Lee), was appointed as an assistant professor at Korea University Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, starting from September. He has contributed to the IIMENA project by establishing E. coli chassis strains for the production of important aromatic polyketides. His major achievements through the IIMENA project include the development of a malonyl-CoA biosensor for the production of polyketides (published in PNAS) and the development of E. coli capable of producing carminic acid, a natural red colorant (published in JACS). As an assistant professor at Korea University, he will be in charge of the Synthetic Biology and Enzyme Engineering Laboratory (SynBEE Lab; yanglaboratory.com). He is aiming to develop new enzymes for the production of pharmaceutical…

As a result of the IIMENA project, we now report the discovery of gargantulides B and C, which are among the largest and most complex bacterial polyketides discovered so far. These huge macrolactones were isolated from an Amycolatopsis sp. strain during an antibacterial screening campaign and their structures were fully elucidated based on 2D NMR spectroscopy. Subsequent identification and analysis of their extraordinarily large biosynthetic gene cluster, together with extensive NMR-based analyses, allowed us to completely assign and revise the absolute stereochemistry of the entire gargantulide family. The new macrolides showed potent antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE), and moderate but unusual activity against the clinically relevant Gram-negative pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii. If you want to know more about these interesting bioactive compounds…

Fernando Reyes (MEDINA) had an oral presentation with title: Combined use of spectroscopic techniques and analysis of clusters of biosynthetic genes for the structural determination of complex natural products at the International Research Symposium in Natural Bioactive Products , Granada, Spain, November 24- 26, 2021

Olga Genilloud (MEDINA) had a talk at the NNF Challenge Symposium in Copenhagen Denmark with title: Challenges of current antibiotic discovery from natural products.

Daniel Oves-Costales, Tetiana Gren, Jesús Martín, Xinglin Jiang, Eva Baggesgaard Sterndorff, Francisco Javier Ortiz-López, Tue S. Jørgensen, Fernando Román-Hurtado, Olga Genilloud and Tilmann Weber. Identification, cloning and heterologous expresión of the gene cluster encoding Globomycin biosynthesis. Novo Nordisk Foundation Challenge Symposium, Copenhagen, 10th Nov 2021. Daniel Carretero-Molina, Francisco Javier Ortiz-López, Tetiana Gren, Daniel Oves-Costales, Jesús Martín, Fernando Román-Hurtado, Tue Sparholt Jørgensen, Mercedes de la Cruz, Caridad Díaz, Fernando Reyes, Francisca Vicente, Kai Blin, Tilmann Weber and Olga Genilloud. Discovery of gargantulides B and C, new 52-membered macrolactones from Amycolatopsis sp. Complete absolute stereochemistry of the gargantulide family. Novo Nordisk Foundation Challenge Symposium, Copenhagen, 10th Nov 2021.

Scientists from DTU Biosustain and KAIST funded by Novo Nordisk Foundation and part of the iimena project have developed a new CRISPR-prime editing toolkit to engineer E. coli. Have a look at the Nature Communications paper -> A versatile genetic engineering toolkit for E. coli based on CRISPR-prime editing. nature Communications. 2021. DOI:10.1038/s41467-021-25541-3

Fernando Reyes (MEDINA) had an invited talk with title: Advances in the structural elucidation of complex natural products using a combination of spectroscopic approaches and biosynthetic gene cluster analysis Galway, Ireland, 30 August-1 September 2021