Researchers at the University of California, San Diego say they have developed a new genetic platform that allows efficient production of naturally occurring molecules. They then used it to produce a novel antibiotic compound, they add.
The UC-San Diego team believes their study (“Direct cloning and refactoring of a silent lipopeptide biosynthetic gene cluster yields the antibiotic taromycin A”), which is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may open new avenues for natural product discoveries and drug development.
According to lead investigator Bradley S. Moore, Ph.D., of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UC-San Diego, the findings demonstrate a “plug-and-play” technique to trigger previously unknown biosynthetic pathways and identify natural product drug candidates.
Read the full, original story: Synthetic Biology Technique Used to Produce Novel Antibiotic
