Discovery of novel natural products from a marine microbial library with applications in human and animal health and wellness
The Kerr Marine Natural Products Lab has state-of-the-art equipment to conduct natural-product discovery research. The research group is composed of over 20 researchers and has outstanding expertise in both natural products isolation/characterization and microbiology. The combination of two LC-HRMS instruments hyphenated with ELSD and PDA detectors provides our lab with strong capabilities for the analysis of natural-product extracts, the quantification of targeted metabolites in environmental samples and the study of microbial secondary metabolomes using LC-HRMS assisted by statistical analyses.
Isolation of natural products, structure elucidation, chemical analyses, including HRMS, cell and enzyme assays
- Chemical industries
- Healthcare and social services
- Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment
- Ocean industries
Specialized labs and equipment
| Equipment | Function |
|---|---|
| LC-HRMS-PDA-ELSD with an Exactive mass spectrometer (Thermo) | Chemical screening of natural products (NPs) |
| LC-HRMS-PDA with an LTQ-Velos (Thermo) | Quantification and identification of natural products (MSn) |
| LC-PDA-ELSD (Thermo) | Semi-preparative purification of NPs |
| LC-PDA-ELSD sample manager (Thermo) | Semi-preparative purification of NPs with automated fraction collection |
| GC-MS (Thermo) | Volatile compound analysis |
| Combiflash Rf200 (Teledyne) | Automated low-pressure purification |
| Evaporating systems: rotavap, Genevac | Drying samples |
| Polatrimeter Rudolph Autopol III | Optical rotation measurement |
| Shaking incubators, PCR units | Microbial fermentation |
| Biosafety cabinets | Microbial fermentation |
| Multi-mode plate reader | Bioassay |
| Freeze-dryer | Drying aqueous samples |
Private and public sector research partners
- Nautilus Biosciences
- Croda
- AB Vista
- Cargill
- Eisai
- Dalhousie University
- Ruhr University Bochum
- Technical University of Munich