Living organisms produce a myriad of natural products which can be used in modern medicine and therapeutics. Bacteria and other microbes have become the main source for natural products, including a growing family called ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides, or RiPPs. The labs of Douglas Mitchell (MMG), John and Margaret Witt Professor of Chemistry, and Huimin Zhao (CABBI/BSD/GSE/MMG), Steven L.

Many of the drugs we utilize in modern medicine are naturally produced by microbes. Penicillin, an antibiotic derived from certain molds, is one of the most notable natural products due to its recognition as one of the biggest advances in medicine and human health. As DNA sequencing has become cheaper and faster, scientists now have access to hundreds of thousands of microbial genomes and the natural products they produce.

Known for ground-breaking research blending chemical and biological approaches to address antibiotic resistance, professor Douglas Mitchell (MMG) was celebrated as the John and Margaret Witt Professor of Chemistry during an Investiture ceremony on the Illinois campus.

During their individual remarks, Mitchell and alumnus John Witt (PhD, ’61) both emphasized the opportunities they have had at Illinois and the impact their advisor-student relationships have had on their careers.

Although small molecule drugs and antibodies continue to be the standard for cancer treatment, a new class of therapeutics — lasso peptides — may prove effective, especially for disease targets that thwart traditional approaches. Combining the power of antibodies and small molecule drugs, the San Diego-based startup Lassogen is developing lasso peptides as a new therapeutic modality. Now, with $4.5 million raised in a seed round, the company moves one step closer to demonstrating the power of lasso peptides for treating human diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders. 

A collaborative effort at the University of Illinois to support COVID-19 testing is winding down, but not before it produced enough materials to support some 200,000 coronavirus tests across the state.

The mid-20th century was the golden age of natural product discovery. Scientists discovered groundbreaking drugs, like penicillin and tetracycline, from sources in nature.

But as the search for natural products continued, pharmaceutical companies kept finding the same products over and over again. By the early 2000s, most of these companies shut down their natural product discovery programs.

An unexpected discovery has given scientists a greater understanding of an important methane-producing enzyme.

A team of IGB researchers published a paper in eLife that outlined their findings on an enzyme called methyl-coenzyme M reductase, or MCR.

Their findings overturn what was previously believed to be true in the field: that a set of unique modifications present in MCR were essential to how the enzyme functions.