Barra Lab

Heterologous Expression of a Cryptic BGC from Bilophila sp. Provides Access to a Novel Family of Antibacterial Thiazoles Human health is greatly influenced by the gut microbiota and microbiota imbalance can lead to the development of diseases. It is widely acknowledged that the interaction of bacteria within competitive ecosystems is influenced by their specialized metabolites, which act, e.g., as antibacterials or siderophores. However, our understanding of the occurrence and impact of such natural products in the human gut microbiome remains very limited. As arylthiazole siderophores are an emerging family of growth-promoting molecules in pathogenic bacteria, we analyzed a metagenomic data set from the human microbiome and thereby identified the bil-BGC, which originates from an uncultured Bilophila strain. Through gene synthesis and BGC assembly, heterologous expression and mutasynthetic experiments, we discovered the arylthiazole natural products bilothiazoles A–F. While established activities of related molecules indicate their involvement in metal-binding and -uptake, which could promote the growth of pathogenic strains, we also found antibiotic activity for some bilothiazoles. This is supported by biosensor-experiments, where bilothiazoles C and E show PrecA-suppressing activity, while bilothiazole F induces PblaZ, a biosensor characteristic for β-lactam antibiotics. These findings serve as a starting point for investigating the role of bilothiazoles in the pathogenicity of Bilophila species in the gut.

In February, we reported "Heterologous Expression of a Cryptic BGC from Bilophila sp. Provides Access to a Novel Family of Antibacterial Thiazoles". This full journey from bioinformatics via heterologous expression & mutasynthetic studies to new NPs is available here: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

UC Davis’s Dean J. Tantillo is the 2025 Leete Awardee - ACS Division of Organic Chemistry The ACS Division of Organic Chemistry is pleased to announce that Professor Dean J. Tantillo (University of California, Davis) has been selected as the 2025 Leete Awardee. Established in 1995, the Leete Award recognizes outstanding contributions to teaching and research in Organic Chemistry. The award honors Edward Leete of the University of Minnesota, who, through … Read More

The ACS Division of Organic Chemistry is pleased to announce that Prof. Dean J. Tantillo (University of California, Davis) has been selected as the 2025 Leete Awardee for his outstanding contributions to teaching and research. Help us congratulate him!

zurl.co/aPslc

A widespread metabolic gene cluster family in metazoans - Nature Chemical Biology Grayson et al. report the genomic discovery and biochemical characterization of a widely distributed gene cluster family for briarane diterpenoid biosynthesis in metazoans. This study expands our unde...

A new paper reports the genomic discovery and biochemical characterization of a widely distributed gene cluster family for briarane diterpenoid biosynthesis in metazoans

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

And that's a wrap of this year's Leibniz Plant Biochemistry Symposium! #IPBSymposium2025 🎉 Thanks to all our excellent guest speakers! Wishing all of our guests from outside Halle a safe trip home and hope to see you next year for #IPBSymposium2026! #PlantSci #NaturalProducts

Choose Europe for Science: ERC welcomes new budget for 'super grants' The Scientific Council of the European Research Council welcomes the offer of substantial additional budget from the European Commission for the development of a new ERC funding instrument offering la...

The ERC welcomes the offer of substantial additional budget from @ec.europa.eu for the development of a new ERC funding instrument offering larger, longer-term grants, as announced by President Ursula Von der Leyen at the Sorbonne this morning.

👉 europa.eu/!NTYTTV

Full Statement of Robert Schlögl on academic freedom in the USA.

We stand united with US academia in defence of science!

The Humboldt Foundation is deeply concerned about the growing threats to #AcademicFreedom in the USA.
📜 Our president Robert Schlögl calls for global solidarity to protect the science systems:

Microbial warfare brought us CRISPR. What big breakthroughs could be next? Gene editing and many other useful biotechnology tools came from studies of bacteria fighting off viral invaders. But scientists have only begun to unlock the secrets of this ancient arms race.

Gene editing and many other useful biotechnology tools came from studies of bacteria fighting off viral invaders, but scientists have only begun to unlock the secrets of this microbial warfare. Read the Nature feature on what breakthroughs could be next. 🧪

Thrilled🤩🤩to share our latest collaboration with #JanSchuller just dropped in Nature!🎉🎉 Huge shoutout to Fidel & all authors; from us 🙌🏿🙌🏿 #FrankAbendroth drived this forward🚀Inspiring science, great vibes & shared vision in #LovelyMarburg 🏰♥️ @synmikro #micros4clima

MDN-0057 to MDN-0060, a Family of Broad-Spectrum Antibiotics against Gram-Negative Pathogens Produced by Ophiosphaerella korrae A novel family of antibiotics, MDN-0057 to MDN-0060 (1–4), was isolated from liquid cultures of the fungus Ophiosphaerella korrae. These compounds incorporate two isocyanide groups in their complex structures that were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analyses, including HRESIMS, and 1D and 2D NMR experiments. The relative configurations were determined by using J-based configuration analyses and the interpretation of key NOESY correlations consistent with the existence of a major conformation in solution. Mosher ester derivatization analysis allowed the establishment of their absolute configurations. All four compounds displayed in vitro antibacterial activity with a broad spectrum against Gram-negative pathogens.

A new research article from @medinadiscovery.bsky.social is now out in Journal of Natural Products. It describes the discovery of a novel family of isocyanide antibiotics with broad spectrum activity against Gram negative bacteria.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Are the Trump team’s actions affecting your research? How to contact Nature Use this form to share information with Nature’s news team, or to make suggestions for future coverage.

Nature magazine journalists are collecting information on how government actions are impacting research.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

logo of research group FOR 5596 on SAM-dependent enzyme chemistry showing the chemical structure of S-adenosylmethionine

FOR 5596 is now on BlueSky! Follow us to stay informed about our collaborative project "Unfolding the potential of SAM-dependent enzyme chemistry".

Beautiful start to the day in Braunschweig! Very much looking forward to the #Chemiedozententagung #CDT2025 starting in a few hours!

www.beilstein-journals.org/bjoc/series/...

Just met Lena Barra @barra-lab.bsky.social at the Chemiedozententagung #CDT2025 this morning.

Lena co-edited a very successful young investigators special in #BJOC last year.

Always nice to meet the BJOC community in person!

🚨🦠🧬Working in the field of Natural Products Chemistry and Biology?🧪🍃🚨

Registration and abstract submission for the #CBNP18 are open! warwick.ac.uk/naturalprodu...

Look forward to seeing you at Warwick University on 26-27 June!

Supported by @ukri.org, @RSC_CBBG and @natprodreports.bsky.social

Scientists, given more time and flexibility, often stumble upon unexpected discoveries—like Alexander Fleming, who saw a mould had killed the bacteria he was growing, paving the way for antibiotics.

Recent study analysed such findings—more of them than you'd expect.
👉 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Activation of Primary C–H Bonds in Oxidative Cyclizations of Tambjamines Catalyzed by Rieske Oxygenases TamC and PtTamC Tambjamines are complex bipyrrole-containing natural products that possess promising bioactive properties. Although Pseudoalteromonas citrea is known to produce both cyclic tambjamine MYP1 and the linear precursor (YP1), the biosynthetic machinery used to catalyze the site-selective oxidative carbocyclization at the unactivated 1° carbon of YP1 has remained unclear. Here, we demonstrate that a three-component Rieske system consisting of an oxygenase (TamC) and two redox partner proteins is responsible for this unprecedented activity on YP1 and potentially, a non-native substrate (BE-18591). We also show that a homologous oxidase from Pseudoalteromonas tunicata (PtTamC) can function together with the partner proteins from P. citrea to process both YP1 and BE-18591. These reactions represent the first Rieske oxygenase-catalyzed activations of C–H bonds at 1° carbons, resulting in carbon–carbon bond formation. The use of TamC and PtTamC to potentially generate the new-to-nature cyclic analogue of BE-18591 suggests the enormous biocatalytic potential of these Rieske systems to facilitate late-stage oxidative cyclizations at terminal C(sp3)–H bonds.

So thrilled to have this story out in the world! Awesome work from Dr. Ramachandra, current grad student Josh Innis and Dr. Yu!!
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Proof of Concept Grant des Europäischen Forschungsrats für #UniKonstanz Biologe Patrick Müller und sein Projekt „EmbryoNet-AI“. Ziel ist die Weiterentwicklung einer KI-gestützten Plattform zur automatisierten Auswertung von Experimenten.
Details: https://t1p.de/um29f

Chemiker Prof. Stephan A. Sieber erhält Inhoffen-Medaille 2024 Für seine Forschung zu neuen Medikamenten gegen multiresistente Bakterien zeichnen ...

We were grateful to receive last year's Inhoffen-Medaille 2024 by the Förderverein des HZI and TU Braunschweig on our drug developing efforts against multidrug resistant bacteria. We want to thank everyone involved for making this possible!
magazin.tu-braunschweig.de/m-post/chemi...

📯📯NEW Chemical Biology Feed bsky.app/profile/did:...

📯List: >200 chemical biologists (probes, OC, PC, imaging): bsky.app/profile/did:...

📯Women in ChemBio Pack: bsky.app/starter-pack...

📯General #ChemBio Pack: bsky.app/starter-pack...

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#chemsky 🧪 🔬

What makes AetF the most efficient flavin-dependent halogenase discovered to date? Prof. Pimchai Chaiyen and Dr. Aisaraphon Phintha decode the mechanistic principles of flavin chemistry in AetF in our new study out in PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....
#halogenases #biocatalysis

Fantastic time hosting @masscheleinlab.bakt.social for the KorS-CB seminar @unikonstanz.bsky.social! Many thanks for stopping by and an exciting lecture! ☀️