Natural Product Research

The Grond Group primarily works on synthesis, isolation, elucidation, chemical characterization and derivatization of new secondary metabolites. To achieve these goals, modern methods such as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and high resolution mass spectrometry are used, as well as NMR spectroscopy and other spectroscopical methods such as investigation of living microorganisms via microplate reader.

Microbiological work is conducted under sterile conditions in our S1 safety lab. Microorganisms are cultivated on agar plates and in liquid cultivation media. We mainly work with streptomyces strains, but in cooperation projects we also use other bacterial genera such as pseudomonas and staphylococcus. In order to produce and identify new secondary metabolites, different cultivation techniques are utilized.

Analytic methods in our group involve biological and chemical screening techniques, leading to identification of biologically active and inactive substances. Biosynthetic studies of secondary metabolites are performed via feeding experiments using stable isotope labelled precursors. Structure-activity relationships can be derived and synthesis of new derivatives is planned of basis of these experiments.

We are interested in new and innovative ways to find and investigate unknown secondary metabolites and always looking for new cooperation partners.