Natural product synthesis and derivatisation
Many natural products are only produced in minor amounts and a full structural characterization is nearly impossible. In addition, many pharmaceutically interesting compounds are too toxic and need derivatisation to improve their pharmacological properties.
Therefore, we are establishing synthetic strategies towards sphingoid-type natural products and functionalized lipids, which represent important signaling molecules in our ecological mdoel systems.
Synthesis of new sulfonolipids
Sphingolipide und Sphingolipid-artigen Naturstoffen sind essentielle Signamoleküle in wichtigen zellulären Prozessen. Sie dienen ebenfalls der Kommunkiation zwischen Organismen. Wir konnten bereits zeigen, dass ein neues Sulfonolipid RIF-1 die Morphogenese von prädatorischen Choanoflagellaten induziert.
Die Synthese von bioaktiven Sphingolipiden und Derivativen (Einbringen von Fluoreszenz-Markern) unterstützt unsere weiterführende biologische Arbeiten (z.B. Identifizierung von zellulären Targets; Aussagen über Struktur-Wirkungsbeziehungen).
Um die Syntheseziele möglichst effizient zu erreichen, werden neuste organische Synthesemethoden verwendet
Synthesis of new NRPS-derived natural products
Based on a comparative genome analysis, we were able to isolate a new natural product - barnesin A. Further bioactivity studies showed that barnesin A is a cysteine protease inhibitor with nanomolar activity. The total synthesis enabled further structural activity studies.
For more details, see Maja's article in ACS ChemBio!
Funding
- EX-SPHINGO (DFG)
- ERC (H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC))