Title: Mighty Chemistry of Microbial Small Molecules
Abstract:
Drugs with origins in microbial metabolites have increased both the average human life span and quality of life. In the natural world, bioactive small molecules provide existential functions for their producers, shape the microbial communities around them, and affect the health of eukaryotic hosts of the microbes. Microbial genes dedicated to the synthesis of a bioactive small molecule are often found in clusters, the vast majority of which remain uncharacterized. My research group discovers bioactive small molecules by mining bacterial genomes; we study the enzymatic processes that assemble the small molecules and elucidate the mechanisms that impart the powerful activities of these molecules. For example, we identified several unusual small molecules produced by the opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa and elucidated the structures and mechanisms of the enzymes involved their biosynthesis. Understanding the mighty chemistry of microbial small molecules could lead to the discovery of new therapeutics and enzyme catalysts.
Bio:
Bo was born and raised in Jilin, China. She obtained her B.S. in biological sciences in 2004 from Beijing University. She earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry in 2009 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with Prof. Wilfred van der Donk. Bo conducted her postdoctoral research in the laboratory of the late Prof. Christopher T. Walsh at Harvard Medical School as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow.
Bo joined the faculty of UNC Chemistry in 2013 and is currently Professor of Chemistry. Her group integrates chemistry and genomics to identify bacterial small molecules and to understand the mechanisms involved in their biosynthesis and mode of action. She has received a National Institutes of Health Pathway to Independence Award, a Rita Allen Foundation Scholars Award, a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and a National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award.
Keywords: natural products, enzyme catalysis, bacterial pathogens