Madan Kharel
University of Maryland Eastern Shore, MD·Biochemistry
Living things make complex molecules that chemists struggle to build in the lab. Manzamines are one example: alkaloids, nitrogen-containing natural products, found mainly in marine sponges, with anticancer and antibacterial activity.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Microbiology & Immunology
Chemistry
- Topics
natural products
alkaloids
manzamine A
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Identify the biosynthetic building blocks of manzamine A's beta-carboline unit and five-ring core using isotope incorporation experiments in Micromonospora sp. M42.
- Identify the enzyme that attaches the beta-carboline unit to the pentacyclic core during manzamine A assembly.
- Sequence the complete genome of Micromonospora sp. M42 to locate the manzamine biosynthetic gene cluster, then express selected pathway enzymes in a host organism and characterize their activity.
More about the research
Over a hundred manzamines are known, but how organisms assemble them has remained unknown. That gap blocks efforts to engineer biology to make new versions.
Why it matters
Knowing how manzamine A is built could let researchers engineer microbes to make new manzamine variants, a biological alternative to difficult chemical synthesis. Such compounds may have uses in medicine, agriculture and biotechnology, given manzamines' anticancer and antibacterial activity. The pathway genes could also help find other manzamines through genome analysis.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Katharine Watts
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo, CA·Biochemistry
Identify the role of individual genes in TLN-05220 biosynthesis by making gene knockouts in the wild-type bacterium that naturally produces this Echinosporamicin-type antibiotic.
Eric W Schmidt
University of Utah, UT·Chemistry
Determine whether individual marine natural products are made by the animal, its symbiotic bacteria, or another organism, and define the biosynthetic pathways that assemble them.
Fay-Wei Li
Duke University, NC·Plant Science & Agriculture
Determine the chemical structure of the hormogonia-inducing factor (HIF), the diterpenoid signal the hornwort Anthoceros punctatus secretes to recruit cyanobacteria, by purifying it from scaled-up cultures and analyzing it by NMR spectroscopy.
The school
University of Maryland Eastern Shore: 2 labs on PI Pages, $13M a year on research, 17 research doctorates a year.
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