Lessons from assembling a microbial natural product and pre-fractionated extract library in an academic laboratory

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Natural Products Chemistry
• Drug Discovery

Background:

• Microbial natural products are vital sources of bioactive compounds, with over 60% of drug scaffolds originating from microbial libraries.
• Diminishing chemical novelty from traditional screening has shifted focus towards synthetic compounds.
• Advancements in mass spectrometry and genomics enable revisiting microbial natural products.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the assembly of a microbial natural product-producing library and pre-fractionated extracts.
• To present a validated approach for academic labs to create such libraries.
• To facilitate the discovery of novel antimicrobial and cytotoxic agents.

Main Methods:

• Assembled a library of natural product-producing microbes.
• Developed methods for extraction and fractionation of bioactive compounds.
• Validated the library and methods through antimicrobial and cytotoxic screening.

Main Results:

• Successfully established a microbial natural product library and pre-fractionated extracts.
• Demonstrated the utility of the library and methods in identifying bioactive compounds.
• Validated the approach for academic research settings.

Conclusions:

• The described approach provides a blueprint for academic labs to build microbial natural product libraries.
• This strategy can revitalize the discovery of novel drug leads from microbial sources.
• The pre-fractionated extract library is suitable for screening bioactive compounds.