Recently taking place at Rice University, organic chemist K.C. Nicolaou, structural biologist Yousif Shamoo, and their colleagues, are working together on forming what could be one the biggest breakthroughs in the medical world.
In the lab, Nicolaou and Shamoo not only tested, but created different variations of the antibotic viridicatumtoxin B. This antibiotic comes from a class of tetracyclines. Tetracyclines are most known for their complex, molecular structure containing four wings. What makes viridicatumtoxin special is that it has the possibility to help fight against bacteria that are sometimes resistant to hospital treatment.
This form of tetracycline is not largely found in nature, so the process of getting this antibiotic is to recreate it in the lab. The natural structure at first wasn’t too clear to the scientists, but after a series of trial and error, they revised the molecule to match up with what the scientist were looking for all along.
This discovery of viridicaturmtoxin B has also opened the doors of simplified synthesis, which can lead the way to the discovery of more, effective antibotics. The complete story of this can be found at this website…
Submitted By: Sarah Herold
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