Inspiration for Novel Chemistry and Drug Discovery

 On October 18, Prof. SHEN Ben fromthe University of Wisconsin-Madison delivered a speech Natural Product Biosynthesis-Inspiration for Novel Chemistry and　Drug Discovery in Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMCAS).

Prof. SHEN expounded the meaning of biosynthesized natural products to novel chemical reaction mechanism and drug. He said Iso-Migrastatin and related glutarimide-containing polyketides were potent inhibitors of tumor cell migration and they had implied potential as antimetastatic agents for human cancers. His academic report combined molecular biology and chemistry which attracted professors and young researchers on natural products and microbial metabolic synthesis.

As a world-renowned professor in biosynthesizing natural products, Prof. SHEN Ben published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals, such as Science, Nature, PNAS, JACS, JBC, Nature Chemical Biology. His current research interests are secondary metabolite biosynthesis in microorganisms, gene cloning and expression, enzyme reaction mechanisms, metabolic pathway engineering, combinatorial biosynthesis, and natural product drug discovery and development.