Biology

Dr. Chu-Young Kim
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry The University of Texas at El Paso, U.S.A.

Abstract:

Vast majority of cancer drugs and antibiotics in clinical use today are produced by soil-dwelling bacteria. These natural product drugs have a very complex chemical structure, often containing multiple stereocenters and intricate cyclic scaffolds. In fact, they are so complex that a synthetic chemist typically requires multiple years to synthesize a natural product drug in the laboratory. In contrast, bacteria can produce a complex natural product molecule in about one minute with close to 100% product yield. The amazing synthetic power of drug-producing bacteria comes from the highly specialized enzymes found inside these bacteria. Our research group has investigated the structure and function of several important biosynthetic enzymes from soil bacteria using X-ray crystallography. I will present the key findings from our recently completed and ongoing studies. Understanding how nature synthesizes complex drug molecules is important because it will allow researchers to engineer living organisms for efficient and timely production of novel drug candidates.