Discovery of New Cyclic Lipodepsipeptide Orfamide N via Partnership with Middle School Students from the Boys and Girls Club.

We established a university-community partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago (BGCC)-named b-to involve middle school students in antibiotic discovery research. In the course of working with a cohort of students from the BGCC, one student isolated a bacterium from a goose feces sample that produced a new cyclic lipodepsipeptide, which was characterized as orfamide N. Orfamide N is composed of ten mixed D/L-amino acids and a ()-3-hydroxyhexadec-9-enoic acid residue.

Discovery of a New Antibiotic Demethoxytetronasin Using a Dual-Sided Agar Plate Assay (DAPA).

For over a century, researchers have cultured microorganisms together on solid support─typically agar─in order to observe growth inhibition via antibiotic production. These simple bioassays have been critical to both academic researchers that study antibiotic production in microorganisms and to the pharmaceutical industry's global effort to discover drugs. Despite the utility of agar assays to researchers around the globe, several limitations have prevented their widespread adoption in advanced high-throughput compound discovery and dereplication campaigns.

Cytotoxic and antimicrobial drimane meroterpenoids from a fungus of the (Ostropales, Ascomycota).

As part of our ongoing research on bioactive fungal metabolites, two new metabolites were isolated from a fungus of the (strain MSX62440), dasyscyphins F and G ( and ), and the known dasyscyphin C (). Compound was characterized by HRMS and 1D and 2D NMR data, and its absolute configuration established by ECD spectroscopy. A structural revision of dasyscyphin C () was based on NMR data and verified by ECD calculations.

Opportunities and Limitations for Assigning Relative Configurations of Antibacterial Bislactones using GIAO NMR Shift Calculations.

Four new bislactones, dihydroacremonol (), clonostachyone (), acremodiol B (), and acremodiol C (), along with one known compound, hymeglusin (), were isolated from cultures of two fungal strains (MSX59876 and MSX59260). Both strains were identified based on phylogenetic analysis of molecular data as spp.; yet, they biosynthesized a suite of related, but different, secondary metabolites.

The Chemistry of Kratom []: Updated Characterization Data and Methods to Elucidate Indole and Oxindole Alkaloids.

Two separate commercial products of kratom [ (Korth.) Havil. Rubiaceae] were used to generate reference standards of its indole and oxindole alkaloids.

Prenylated Diresorcinols Inhibit Bacterial Quorum Sensing.

Current treatment options for bacterial infections are dependent on antibiotics that inhibit microbial growth and viability. These approaches result in the evolution of drug-resistant strains of bacteria. An anti-infective strategy that is less likely to lead to the development of resistance is the disruption of quorum sensing mechanisms, which are involved in promoting virulence.