We are a chemical biology group that focuses on the study of natural products. Natural products are highly evolved and functionally privileged compounds that often display complex chemical structures. These molecules have inspired generations of synthetic organic chemists, unveiled numerous fundamental biological processes as chemical probes, and served as the most significant source of chemical matter for drug discovery.
As the field of genomics has expanded, it has revealed a vast untapped wealth of natural products encoded in the DNA of sequenced organisms, particularly bacteria. Our lab has developed new tools to expedite the discovery of natural products from genomic information, including molecules from bacteria that cannot be cultivated in a lab. In particular, our lab focuses on Ribosomally synthesized and Post-translationally modified Peptides (RiPPs) which have genetically encoded substrates and an incredible diversity of post-translational modifications. Using a genes-to-molecule approach, we have uncovered numerous structurally unique RiPP molecules and revealed the unprecedented mechanistic enzymology through which they form. We can then leverage this knowledge to produce new-to-nature compounds with improved properties or novel activity with the long-term goal of unleashing the full synthetic potential of Nature to reshape the diagnosis and treatment of human disease.
Riley, Shravan, former member Graham and collaborators from the Freeman lab published paper in ACS Chemical biology where they update RODEO and use it to discover two classes of borosins that shed light on additional borosin biosynthetic strategies
Dinh and collaborators from the UIUC NMR lab, Materials Research lab, X-ray lab and van der Donk lab have published a paper in ACS Central Science where they utilize bioinformatics to discover a novel RiPP class biosynthesized by distinct metalloenzyme families.
Shravan, Mayuresh and collaborators in the Zhao lab, have published a paper in Nature Chemistry where they discover a new fatty acid/RiPP hybrid compound: lipoavitide.
Hamada and former lab members Lonnie, Kyle and Xiaorui, have published a paper in Biochemistry in which they used a bioinformatic strategy to discover two lasso peptides with new modifications to tryptophan; Chlorolassin and Wygwalassin A1.
Dinh published a review in ACS catalysis that details the advances made in mining genomes and new chemical transformations.