Eustaquio Lab
@eustaquiolab.bsky.social
We study natural products (secondary metabolites) from bacteria using genomics, reverse genetics, and synthetic biology approaches. University of Illinois at Chicago eustaquio.lab.uic.edu
My most recent column in Nature Chem (@natchem.nature.com) is out: First Ladies of Chemistry. Who were the early women PhDs in chemistry? Why was the Ice Woman a hero (why is she still?)? Also -aren't those lab coats in the photo wild? rdcu.be/frKkW
First ladies of chemistry
Nature Chemistry - Michelle Francl puts the early women of chemistry, who were ignored at the time, back into the picture.
rdcu.be
#PostDoc opportunity in synthetic chemistry at Lilly (San Francisco CA USA) ref: R-105683 #SynChem #MedChem #ChemPostDoc #PostDocJobs #chemsky 🧪 careers.lilly.com/us/en/job/R-...
Postdoctoral Scientist, Medicinal Chemistry in San Francisco, California, United States of America | Research & Development at Lilly
Apply for Postdoctoral Scientist, Medicinal Chemistry job with Lilly in San Francisco, California, United States of America. Research & Development at Lilly
careers.lilly.com
🔥 Published today, and just in time for summer conferences, here are your guidelines for presenting badly www.nature.com/articles/s41... rdcu.be/fqa92
Interested in natural products? We just published an article on hybrid peptide-polyketide-specialized lipids and describe the chitinimines, a new family of amphiphilic metabolites. Read it open access in JACS Au: doi.org/10.1021/jacs...
Charting the Biosynthetic Landscape of Hybrid Polyketide-Nonribosomal Peptide-Specialized Lipids
Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) synthase enzymes are best known for their role in membrane lipid biosynthesis in marine psychrophilic bacteria but have also evolved to assemble specialized lipid-con...
doi.org
Don't miss this review by Mark Butler & Robert Capon at the University of Queensland providing a comprehensive account of the 217 natural product inspired antibiotics approved for human use from 1943-2025 #chemsky #natprod #medchem Check it out on our website👇
Natural product inspired antibiotics approved for human use – 1943 to 2025
Covering literature to September 2025 This review provides a comprehensive account of the 217 natural product inspired antibiotics that have been approved for human use from 1943 through to September…
pubs.rsc.org
🔓Check out this #OpenAccess review from Kira J. Weissman @univlorraine.bsky.social discussing the decision making by modular polyketide synthases and the implications for genetic engineering #secmet #natprod Read the full article here🔽
Decision making by modular polyketide synthases and implications for genetic engineering
Covering: up to 2025 Modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) are often described as molecular-scale assembly lines – a moniker that implies a high-degree of coordinated and regulated activity. Belying…
pubs.rsc.org
Celebrating 3 awarded PhDs: congratulations to Dua, Elodie and Vitor!
🔓Be sure to read this #OpenAccess Highlight by Barbara I. Adaikpoh from the University of Illinois Chicago in our latest issue looking at microbial natural products activated by plant stress #natprod #secmet Find the full article on our website👇
Microbial natural products activated by plant stress
Covering: 2000 to August 2025 The search for new antimicrobial natural products from microorganisms has been limited by the transcriptional silencing of biosynthetic genes when microbes are…
pubs.rsc.org
The European Commission will invest $34.7 million in the two public-private partnerships to boost the pipeline for new antibiotics and other AMR medical countermeasures. Read more: ow.ly/Sap850YFgir
Our new review article "Microbial secondary metabolites: advancements to accelerate discovery towards application" in Nature Reviews Microbiology is now published! rdcu.be/d6BHX
Microbial secondary metabolites: advancements to accelerate discovery towards application
Nature Reviews Microbiology - In this Review, Dinglasan and colleagues explore innovations that facilitate rapid microbial secondary metabolite discovery, focusing on recent techniques for the...
rdcu.be
ASP Summer Research Fellowship Applications Extended - Deadline March 9, 2026, 11:59 PM Central Time www.pharmacognosy.us/asp-summer-r...
📢Our latest issue is now online! This month's issue is a special themed collection on Microbial Host & Metabolic Engineering for Natural Product Discovery & Production #secmet #natprod #chemsky Read the articles in the collection on our website here🔽 pubs.rsc.org/en/journals/...
Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇
White House stalls release of approved US science budgets
The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.
nature.com
Check out the Editorial from guest editors Alessandra Eustaquio @eustaquiolab.bsky.social, Eriko Takano & Tobias Gulder @togulab.bsky.social on how the articles in the issue cover various topics enabling microbial natural product discovery, supply and engineering pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
Editorial: Microbial host and metabolic engineering for natural product discovery and production
Alessandra Eustaquio, Eriko Takano and Tobias Gulder introduce the Natural Product Reports themed issue on microbial host and metabolic engineering for natural product discovery and production.
pubs.rsc.org
The MIBiG 5.0 Annotathon is coming soon, and registration is now open! 🧬 Does your research involve biosynthetic gene clusters? Do you love natural product biosynthesis? Do you have an interest in rare & exotic enzymes? We can use your help & expertise. Register here 👉 forms.gle/C1cWcLHtrjT2...
Lovely C&EN @cenmag.bsky.social story on the history and personal impact of the cancer drug Taxol. After spending recent years deciphering how yew trees, our source for Taxol, synthesize this lifesaving drug, it’s so nice to see it in the larger context #secmet #medsky Plants are amazing chemists.
Paclitaxel saved my life. New discoveries could boost supply
After decades, scientists have finally pieced together the 23-step biosynthetic pathway to produce this cancer drug
cen.acs.org
And we have a webpage! Still in the works! But still share please! We’ll be happy to host you next year in Mexico! Sitios.quimica.unam.mx/unidad/sisal/manapro
XVIII MaNaPro
sitios.quimica.unam.mx
🚨There is less than one week left to nominate for the 2026 @natprodreports.rsc.org Emerging Investigator Lectureship! Don't miss the opportunity to recognise a rising star in the field #chemsky #secmet #natprod ⏳Nominations close 19 October Details on how to nominate🔽 www.rsc.org/standards-an...
Be sure to read this review, part of our Industrial Perspective themed collection, by Stefano Donadio & co. from NAICONS Srl discussing the trends in metabolite discovery from Actinomycetes #secmet #natprod Find it in full below👇
Trends in metabolite discovery from Actinomycetes
Covering: 2013 to 2023 In this review, we analyzed the scientific literature of the period 2013–2023 that reported novel specialized metabolites from the Actinomycetes, one of the most prolific…
pubs.rsc.org
www.nature.com/articles/s44... #microsky #phagesky #synbio
Non-model bacteria as platforms for endogenous gene expression in synthetic biology - Nature Reviews Bioengineering
Microbial synthetic biology might greatly benefit from the application of non-model organisms, which have been evolutionarily optimized for the production of specific proteins and metabolites. This Review discusses the design and application of endogenous production in non-model organisms.
nature.com
ICYMI: Nominations for the 2026 @natprodreports.rsc.org Emerging Investigator Lectureship are currently open! #chemsky #secmet #naturalproducts #synbio 🧪 ⌛Deadline for nominations is 19 October 2025 Details on how to nominate can be found on our website here▶️rsc.li/npr-lectureship
“principles of experimental design that are relevant for all biology research, along with special considerations for projects using -omics approaches”👇🏼 #Perspective in @natcomms.nature.com
Manuel Kleiner@manuelkleiner.bsky.social · 12mo agoI am really excited to see this article on basic experimental design principles published. Definitely will be mandatory reading for incoming graduate students in my lab. Maggie Wagner who led this article did an amazing job with the illustrations of basic principles www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Bring an N95 or KN95 mask if you are headed to ASP this weekend and have asthma/sensitive lungs. The midwest is smothered in smoke from the Canadian wildfires right now.
woody and buzz lightyear from toy story are standing next to each other with the caption smoke everywhere
ALT: woody and buzz lightyear from toy story are standing next to each other with the caption smoke everywhere
media.tenor.com
Here's a fun perspective piece on Cyanobacteria as prolific natural product producers with great potential for drug discovery. Thanks especially to @philmuslab.bsky.social for ringleading and letting us contribute! pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
Green genes from blue greens: challenges and solutions to unlocking the potential of cyanobacteria in drug discovery
Cyanobacteria are prolific producers of biologically active compounds that are important in influencing ecology, behavior of interacting organisms, and as leads in drug discovery efforts. Here we disc...
pubs.rsc.org
Come read about our thoughts on why cyanobacteria are underrepresented in drug discovery and how both synthetic biology and native hosts can help. This was fun to work on with a great group of people who include @dtdoering.bsky.social @danudwary.secondarymetabolism.com @eustaquiolab.bsky.social
Dan Udwary@danudwary.secondarymetabolism.com · last yr.Here's a fun perspective piece on Cyanobacteria as prolific natural product producers with great potential for drug discovery. Thanks especially to @philmuslab.bsky.social for ringleading and letting us contribute! pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
Pleased to share our new paper out in 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 led by Monika Kumaraswamy, MD, now Chief of Infectious Diseases UTexas-Tyler Is minimimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) testing the gold standard for antibiotic-resistant superbugs? 🦠 🧫 🧵 1/6 www.jci.org/articles/vie...
🔓Check out this #OpenAccess review by Lindsay Caesar & co. at @unm.edu & James Madison University, part of our Emerging Investigators collection, on natural product discovery from microbial communities in caves & underground mines #natprod #microsky Read in full here🔽
Subterranean marvels: microbial communities in caves and underground mines and their promise for natural product discovery
Covering: 2014 to 2024 Since the dawn of human history, caves have played an intimate role in our existence. From our earliest ancestors seeking shelter from the elements to more recent generations…
pubs.rsc.org
New report shows that NIH grants fueled $95 billion in economic activity and 407,782 jobs in 2024. That's not to mention the countless lives that biomedical research has saved. Show me a better investment than that. www.forbes.com/sites/michae...
NIH Grants Fueled $95 Billion In FY 2024 Economic Activity, Finds New Report
National Institutes of Health grants generated almost $95 billion in economic activity nationwide in FY 2024 according to a new report by United for Medical Research.
forbes.com