CHED 584 |
| An important avenue for drug discovery is natural products chemistry: the identification and characterization of microbial metabolites. Despite successes in the development of pharmaceuticals from terrestrial microbes, obligate marine bacteria have only recently been identified as a phylogenetically distinct resource. This suggests that the oceans are a promising source of biologically active natural products. The Fenical Lab at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography has screened more than 500 microbial extracts over the past year against a series of cancer chemoprevention assays. In this screening process, actinomycete strain CNS-177, Streptomyces sp. showed activity against NF-κB and aromatase. NF-κB is involved in inflammation and the promotion stage of carcinogenesis, while aromatase is a cytochrome P450-dependent enzyme essential to estrogen biosynthesis. The structures of three active metabolites were solved using UV, MS, and 2D NMR experiments. Stereochemistry was determined by crystallography of derivatives. |
|
Undergraduate Research Poster Session: Organic Chemistry
11:00 AM-1:00 PM, Monday, March 26, 2007 Hyatt Regency Chicago -- Riverside Center, Poster
Division of Chemical Education |