Novel Marine Drugs : Prof. Trindade / Dr. Anita Burger / Dr. Lonnie van Zyl
The 3000 km long southern African coast is characterized by high levels of marine species endemism, offering exceptional opportunity to discover both new enzymes and novel natural products with pharmacological application. This project involves the isolation of biosynthetic gene clusters encoding novel bioactive compounds from prokaryotes associated with marine invertebrates and sediments. The methods employed are aimed to overcome two of the major bottlenecks which are hindering the discovery and development of pharmacologically active compounds.
Biosurfactants: Prof. Trindade / Dr. Anita Burger / Dr. Lonnie van Zyl
Surfactants which lower the surface tension between two liquids are usually amphiphilic organic compounds. More than 17 million tonnes of various petroleum-based surfactants are produced annually. Biosurfactants are non-toxic, biodegradable alternatives produced by animals, plants and microorganisms. A promising example is lyso-ornithine lipid which can be made using a metagenome-derived protein ornithine acyl-ACP N-acyltransferase (OlsB) discovered by IMBM. This project involves the upscaling of production of lyso-ornithine lipid using metabolic engineering and fermentation optimizations approaches, as well as identifying new biosurfactants.
Lyso-ornithine lipids could have many applications including wastewater remediation, in cosmetics, the food industry, pharmaceutical applications, and agricultural applications. Many of these are being explored with partner organizations such as Biodx (https://biodx.co/), Ciribelle (https://cirebelle.com/), Axonova (https://www.axonova-pharma.com/) and Rizobacter (https://www.rizobacter.com/en).
