题目：Harnessing biosynthesis for revolutionizing natural product research

主讲：唐啸宇 研究员（深圳湾实验室）

时间：10月31日（周四）10:20-11:20

会议地点：慧园4栋301

报告摘要：

Natural products have long fascinated chemists due to their complex three-dimensional structures, which make them challenging to produce through chemical synthesis. Perhaps more importantly, structural complexity and multidimensionality confer many natural products with potent and specific biological activities, making them privileged scaffolds in the quest to develop new therapeutic agents. The ability to connect natural products to genes and vice versa has not only advanced the field of natural product biosynthesis but also led to the emergence of natural products genome mining for the rational discovery of new chemical entities. Over the past few decades, the natural product biosynthesis communities have made tremendous efforts to elucidate the biosynthetic processes of natural products, accumulating a vast amount of biosynthetic knowledge. We recognize that these continuously accumulating insights can be used to guide the discovery of new natural products and elucidate the biological functions of natural products.

In this report, I will discuss recent progress in my lab's efforts to explore new paradigms in microbial natural product research, guided by the principles of biosynthesis. This includes: (1) The establishment of a semi-synthesis platform for the production and exploration of didemnin-based drugs [1-2]; (2) Targeted genome mining of new antimicrobial macrocyclic peptides [3]; (3) Development of a new engineering strategy for improving and activating the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in Streptomyces [4]; (4) Elucidation of the physiological and ecological functions of natural products [5]. These advances represent significant strides towards harnessing the power of biosynthesis for the discovery and application of natural products.

个人简介：

唐啸宇博士现任深圳湾实验室特聘研究员、SMART Fellow、化学生物学研究所所长助理、中山大学（深圳）药学院兼职博导。2006年本科毕业于中国药科大学，2013年获德国图宾根大学药学博士学位， 2013-2018年在美国加州大学圣地亚哥分校从事博士后研究，随后受雇于全球最大合成生物学公司Ginkgo Bioworks，2020年底全职回国。唐啸宇博士致力于活性天然产物的挖掘、生物合成和生物生态功能的研究，对该领域主要的科学贡献包括：1.提出“以抗性基因为导向”“以生物合成规则为指导”和“以泛基因组共进化分析为基因簇激活线索”等系列天然产物挖掘策略，这些方法获得领域内广泛认可;2.揭示多个非核糖体肽天然分子的生物合成途径和生物合成机理，并探讨它们的生物学和生态学意义。已发表Nature Chemical Biology、Nature Metabolism和Nature Communications等论文。目前担任中国生物物理学会肠道菌群分会委员和广东省医学分会微生态医学分会第一届委员，曾任美国微生物学会Microbiology Spectrum杂志编辑（2021-2024），获2014 年欧洲PHOENIX Pharmaceutics Science Award。