Research Interest

Natural products, a class of small molecules renowned for their structural complexity and biological potency, have long been at the forefront of drug discovery and chemical innovation. However, while genome sequencing has revealed bacteria encode the potential to produce a far greater diversity of natural products than previously realized, they typically produce only a small fraction of their total repertoire due to intricate regulatory networks. The overarching goal of the Kalkreuter group is to unlock these networks to access both novel natural products and their associated enzymes. Towards this goal, our multidisciplinary approach leverages: (1) directed evolution for protein engineering, (2) state-of-the-art chemical and synthetic biology tools for activating biosynthetic gene clusters, (3) bioinformatics-guided genome mining for identifying valuable biosynthetic gene clusters, and (4) mechanistic and structural enzymology for characterization of unique transformations. Through this integrated methodology, we aim to expand the scope of known bacterial natural products, paving the way for new drug leads and insights into nature’s chemical diversity.