Natural products - 8 News

Device 'smells' seawater to discover, detect novel molecules

Promising for drug discovery in fragile ecosystems, including coral reefs

10-Nov-2023 - Under the ocean’s surface, marine organisms are constantly releasing invisible molecules. Some of the chemical clues reveal which creatures are nearby, while others could be used someday as medications. Now, researchers in ACS Central Science report a proof-of-concept device that “sniffs” ...

Analysis of single plant cells provides insights into natural product biosynthesis

Single-cell multi-omics reveals that cell types are differentially involved in the production and accumulation of medically relevant plant compounds

19-May-2023 - In a new study published in Nature Chemical Biology, an international team of researchers from the University of Georgia, USA, and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, presents a promising strategy for elucidating metabolic pathways for plant compounds of medicinal ...

Scientists “revive” Stone Age molecules

In a highly transdisciplinary study, scientists are rebuilding microbial natural products up to 100,000 years old

08-May-2023 - Breakthroughs in ancient genome reconstruction and biotechnology are now revealing the rich molecular secrets of Paleolithic microorganisms. In a new study published in Science, a transdisciplinary team of researchers led by the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection ...

Tapping the ocean as a source of natural products

New species and new molecules discovered

24-Jun-2022 - Using DNA data, ETH researchers have examined seawater to find not only new species of bacteria, but also previously unknown natural products that may one day prove beneficial. The oceans are teeming with countless forms of life, from the world’s largest creature – the blue whale– to miniscule ...

Finding new weapons in Nature`s battlesites

Genomic studies open up a wealth of bioactive small molecules in insect-killing bacteria

27-Apr-2022 - Interactions between microbes and other organisms are mediated by a plethora of small molecules, also called natural products. A research team led by Dr. Yi-Ming Shi and Prof. Helge Bode from the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology has now performed a systematic analysis of ...

New drug candidates identified in bacteria

Bacteria show great promise as a source of active ingredients

17-Feb-2022 - Using computer-​based genome analysis, researchers at ETH Zurich have now discovered a new class of natural products that might one day serve as antibiotics. Animals, plants, fungi and bacteria – each and every organism carries a whole armoury of chemical compounds that enable it to interact with ...

Determining the atomic structure of natural products more rapidly and accurately

23-Jan-2020 - Many drugs are derived from natural products. But before natural products can be exploited, chemists must first determine their structure and stereochemistry. This can be a major challenge, particularly when the molecules cannot be crystallized and contain only few hydrogen atoms. A new NMR-based ...

SMART: Facial recognition for molecular structures

Paradigm shift in interpretation of NMR spectra

09-Nov-2017 - An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of California San Diego has developed a method to identify the molecular structures of natural products that is significantly faster and more accurate than existing methods. The method works like facial recognition for molecular ...