Nature is one of the best chemists. The Bailey Lab seeks to harness natural product enzymes to both elucidate new chemistry and discover new molecules as well as engineer new pathways to create new molecules. Our laboratory uses an interdisciplinary mix of synthetic chemistry, enzymology, and bioengineering to approach these problems.
Enzymology of Assembly Line Systems
Many of the most structurally natural products are generated by polyketide synthases in a fashion akin to a molecular machine. We seek to better understand how these assembly lines function and how we can re-engineer them to make new molecules.
Heterologous Expression of Genes from Soil Bacteria
In addition to understanding how the enzymes catalyze reactions, we have to decide what is the best way to reprogram them so that they can be expressed in new “chassis.” Do do so, we are developing workflows and tools to understand the pros and cons of different expression systems. Lately efforts have focused on using cell free transcription/translation as a means to do so.