Marine bioactive natural substances and bio-sustainable production

Discovery of bioactive compounds from marine natural sources (invertebrates, microorganisms) useful for the development of new drugs, cosmetics and/or biotechnology applications. These objectives are achieved primarily through the isolation and spectroscopic characterization of new molecules, and by partial or total synthesis of lead compounds.

Research groups:

  • (NPBiotech) The interest of the NPBiotech research group is directed to the identification and sustainable production by biotechnological methods of new natural products by macro- and micro-sea organism, to be used as lead compounds for the design of new classes of anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory drugs. The biotechnological production of bioactive natural products using their own biosynthetic genes by recombinant technologies, is the exciting new frontier in the study of natural products, in that it promises to overcome the supply problems which have so far prevented their wide practical exploitation. The key activities for this research can be summarized as follows: isolation and structural elucidation in the microgram scale of bioactive natural products produced by marine organisms, or from their symbiotic microorganisms; study of metagenomes of macro-organisms, or the genomes of microorganisms, for the identification and engineering of the biosynthetic genes of natural products; expression of biosynthetic genes of natural products in heterologous hosts; chemical analysis of cultures of transformed microorganisms and profiling of their secondary metabolites.
  • (TheBlueChemistryLab) TheBlueChemistryLab is part of the emergent topic called Blue Economy and focuses on exploring the unique natural products of marine sponges and cyanobacteria as lead compounds for pharmacological applications. These chemically prolific organisms are sources of numerous highly unusual metabolites, and the TheBlueChemistryLab has been involved in their discovery and evaluation in the areas of cancer and inflammation. More recently, the group has also applied the chemical knowledge to explore the QQ and the QS system in bacteria symbiotic with sponges with the goal to create novel leads in antibacterial drug discovery in collaboration with the group of Dr. L. Steindler (University of Haifa, Israel).
  • (SIDG) Identification and design of leads for the treatment of cancer, malaria, inflammatory and bacterial diseases.
  • (NATLEAD) Identification of leads aimed at novel therapeutic approaches for inflammatory diseases; identification of ligands of nuclear receptors involved in hepatic and gastric diseases.

Partecipants:

  • Anna Aiello
  • Valeria Costantino
  • Maria Valeria D’Auria
  • Gerardo Della Sala
  • Simona De Marino
  • Carmen Festa
  • Concetta Imperatore
  • Alfonso Mangoni
  • Marialuisa Menna
  • Valentina Sepe
  • Roberta Teta
  • Angela Zampella
  • Franco Zollo