PhD Project 1
Isolation of new bioactive secondary metabolites from marine bacteria
Kim van Wezel
Currently, I am a PhD candidate at UiT the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø. My academic background includes a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences from Leiden University, the Netherlands.
My research project is focused on the isolation and characterization of novel antimicrobial compounds derived from marine actinobacteria. More specifically, I am focusing on culturing actinobacteria from the Nordic seas under various cultivation conditions, following the OSMAC (one strain, many compounds) approach. Extracts of these cultures are then subjected to antimicrobial bioactivity screening through multiple assays. The bioactive extracts are dereplicated through MS/MS based untargeted metabolomics to select potentially bioactive compounds for isolation. Subsequently, the isolated compounds undergo NMR analysis for structural elucidation, followed by additional bioassays to confirm their bioactivity.
Isolation of new bioactive secondary metabolites from marine bacteria
The main objective is the discovery of novel antibacterial molecules in (Arctic) marine bacteria.
The specific objectives are:
1) Nomination of talented producers (marine bacteria) of secondary metabolites. Combining chemical analysis with genome analysis.
2) Fermentation of bacteria under different culturing conditions, including co-culturing to search for antibacterial compounds.
3) Chemical analysis of fermentation broths to identify potential new compounds.
4) Isolation and structure elucidation of compounds.
5) Bioactivity profiling of isolated and chemically characterized compounds (anti-infectives, anticancer, anti-diabetic).
Supervisors: Kine Ø. Hansen, Jeanette H. Andersen, Espen H. Hansen
Host institution: UiT - the Arctic University of Norway
