3 Poster prizes were awarded on the occasion of the Directing Biosynthesis IV conference held in Norwich, 25-27 March 2015.
Congratulations to you all!
Chemical Science poster award
Catherine Hubert (King’s College London, UK)
Poster title: Elucidation of a novel nitric oxide synthase containing biosynthetic pathway
Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry poster award
Maximilian Helf (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
Poster title: Exploring the proteusin family of natural products
Maximilian tells us a few words about his research:
‘The giant peptide toxins polytheonamides are produced by a bacterial symbiont of the marine sponge Theonella swinhoei. The biosynthesis of these natural products involves highly unusual modifications of a precursor peptide, including 18 amino acid epimerizations and eight N-methylations of asparagine residues. Polytheonamides and putative natural products derived from related precursor peptides constitute a new family of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptide natural products (RiPPs), the proteusins. Many of the predicted biosynthetic gene clusters for proteusins encode enzymes of unknown function. Using heterologous expression and culturing approaches, we are prospecting these systems for novel enzyme types, with a focus on sponge symbionts and cyanobacteria.’
Natural Product Reports poster award
Marie Yurkovitch (University of Cambridge, UK)
Poster title: Catramycin: A novel immunosuppressant molecule
From left to right: Marie Cote (Deputy editor, NPR), Maximilian Helf, Catherine Hubert, Maria Yurkovich and Brad Moore (NPR Chair)
