Natural products have greatly contributed to drug discovery. Nevertheless, there has been a diminished interest in drug discovery from natural sources starting in the 1990s prompted by natural product-specific challenges that include a) the high rate of rediscovery of known compounds using traditional technologies,b)difficulties inobtaining enough material for pre-clinical and clinical development, and c) difficulties in modifying the native structures to fine-tune drug properties. An increasing understanding of natural product biosynthesis, coupled with recent advances in genome sequencing and in synthetic biology, have spurred a renewed interest in natural product discovery in the private and academic sectors, mainly spurred by the observation that microbial genomes encode a large and mostly untapped capacity for natural product biosynthesis.In this presentation, I will discuss collaborative efforts towards uncovering the genetic basis for the biosynthesis of a select number of natural products, and how understanding of natural product biosynthesis can contribute to solving the inherent challenges of natural products as drug leads.
In this presentation, I will discuss collaborative efforts towards uncovering the genetic basis for the biosynthesis of a select number of natural products, and how understanding of natural product biosynthesis can contribute to solving the inherent challenges of natural products as drug leads.
In this presentation, I will discuss collaborative efforts towards uncovering the genetic basis for the biosynthesis of a select number of natural products, and how understanding of natural product biosynthesis can contribute to solving the inherent challenges of natural products as drug leads.