Research Deep‑Dive

Natural Product Discovery

Mining microbial dark matter for tomorrow's medicines.

We use soil metagenomics and advanced bioinformatics to identify and express cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters, unlocking novel antibiotics, antifungals, and anticancer agents.

Our Pipeline ← Back to Research
💊
100+
Soil metagenomes sequenced
200+
BGCs predicted (antiSMASH)
6
Novel BGCs expressed in heterologous hosts
Our Approach

From Soil to Screens

We collect diverse soil samples, extract high‑molecular‑weight DNA, sequence deeply, and then mine the data for BGCs that are silent in native hosts — expressing them in engineered chassis to produce novel compounds.

🧬 1. Metagenomic Sequencing

Long‑read (Nanopore) + short‑read (Illumina) hybrid assembly of soil metagenomes.

💻 2. BGC Mining

antiSMASH, DeepBGC, and custom ML models to prioritise clusters for heterologous expression.

🧪 3. Expression & Bioassay

Refactoring and expression in Streptomyces and E. coli hosts, followed by antimicrobial and cytotoxicity screening.

Current Highlights

  • ✓ Discovered a new NRPS cluster encoding a lipopeptide with potent anti‑MRSA activity.
  • ✓ Successfully expressed a silent polyketide cluster from a desert soil metagenome.
  • ✓ Partnership with national biorepository for access to remote ecosystem samples.
Associated Research Outputs
01
Metagenomic BGC mining reveals high diversity of cryptic RiPPs in tropical soils — Data accepted for Microbial Biotechnology (2025)
02
Heterologous expression of a type‑III PKS from a wetland metagenome — Manuscript in revision
03
AI‑aided prioritisation of BGCs for antifungal drug discovery — Internal benchmark report