Introduction

Natural Product Discovery from Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria is the only phylum of bacteria that can perform oxygenic photosynthesis. Their unique genomic context indicated that they have great potential to produce novel natural products. One of my research focus is to discover biologically active natural products form cyanobacteria for drug development.

Natural Product Biosynthesis and Enzymology

Natural products are biosynthesized by enzymatic machinery in living organisms. I am interested in deciphering biosynthetic pathways of natural products, in order to guide mass production of valuable natural products at industrial scale, and to discover novel enzymes for catalyzing reactions that are difficult to achieve by traditional catalysts.

Representative Publications

1. Luo, S.; Dong, S., Recent advances in the discovery and biosynthetic study of eukaryotic RiPP natural products. Molecules. 2019, 24, 1541.

2. Luo, S.; Kang, H. S.; Krunic, A. M.; Chen, W. L.; Yang, J. Woodard, J. L.; Fuchs, J. R.; Cho, S. H.; Franzblau, S. G.; Swanson, S. M.; Orjala, J., Trichormamides C and D, antiproliferative cyclic lipopeptides from the cultured freshwater cyanobacterium cf. Oscillatoria sp. UIC 10045 Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2015, 23, 3153-3162.

3. Luo, S.; Krunic, A.; Chlipala, G. E.; Orjala, J., Microseiramide from the freshwater cyanobacterium Microseira sp. UIC 10445. Phytochemistry Lett. 2015, 13, 47-52.

4. Luo, S.; Krunic, A.; Kang, H. S.; Chen, W. L.; Woodard, J. L.; Fuchs, J. R.; Swanson, S. M.; Orjala, J., Trichormamides A and B with antiproliferative activity from the cultured freshwater cyanobacterium Trichormus sp. UIC 10339. J. Nat. Prod. 2014, 77, 1871-1880.

5. Luo, S.; Kang, H. S.; Krunic, A. M.; Chlipala, G. E.; Cai, G.; Chen, W. L.; Franzblau, S. G.; Swanson, S. M.; Orjala, J., Carbamidocyclophanes F and G with anti-Mycobacterium tuberculosis activity from the cultured freshwater cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. Tetrahedron Lett. 2014, 55, 686-689.

Representative Publications