RESEARCH
We focused on the discovery of microbial natural products
Our primary interest concerns the bioactive molecules and enzymes in microbes, repurposing them to address challenges in human health and environmental sustainability, which includes a fundamental understanding of their structures, biosynthesis, and bioactivities.
1) Natural products discovery
To discover microbial natural products that are relevant to human health, we use techniques such as mass spectrometry-based detection, chromatography-based isolation and NMR-based characterization. References: J. Nat. Prod. 2024; J. Nat. Prod. 2022; J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021
2) Connecting chemistry back to genes
To better understanding how Nature makes natural products, we performed heterologous expression in Escherichia coli to elucidate their biosynthetic pathway. References: J. Nat. Prod. 2024
3) Evolution-inspired exploration
To perform genome mining for proteins encoding natural products, we use bioinformatic tools such as sequence similarity networks and phylogenetic trees to construct, visualize and analyze the protein sequences. References: ACS Chem. Biol. 2025; Org. Lett. 2025; RSC Chem. Biol. 2025
4) Enzymology
To study the enzyme function, substrate scope and mechanism, we use AlphaFold structure prediction, in vitro characterization and mutagenesis studies. References: RSC Chem. Biol. 2024; ACS Chem. Biol. 2024
The Natalion project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence under grant agreement No 101087181. Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the REA can be held responsible for them.