Fall 2026 Graduate Student Seminar Series – Ansel Duncan

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry presents:

Ansel Duncan

Ph.D. Candidate – Chekan Research Group

Literature Seminar

Mixing and Matching Biosynthetic Machinery: Engineering Fungi to Produce Natural and Unnatural Products

Wednesday, October 21th in Sullivan Science Bldg Rm. 201, starting at 1:00 PM

Abstract:

Fungi have evolved diverse biosynthetic pathways that produce complex and biologically active natural products. Advances in genetic engineering and heterologous expression now allow researchers to combine biosynthetic genes from different organisms, creating artificial pathways capable of producing new-to-nature compounds. This approach, known as combinatorial biosynthesis, offers opportunities to expand natural product diversity beyond the capabilities of native biosynthetic pathways. This presentation reviews three studies demonstrating different applications of this strategy. The first explores how recombining fungal biosynthetic genes can generate structurally diverse indole diterpenes. The second examines the integration of an engineered bacterial enzyme into a fungal biosynthetic pathway to produce the pharmaceutical pravastatin. The third demonstrates how combining fungal and plant biosynthetic genes can generate a new-to-nature halogenated natural product analogue. Together, these studies illustrate how recombining biosynthetic genes can expand the chemical capabilities of engineered organisms. By exploring both the successes and challenges of these approaches, this presentation highlights the potential of combinatorial biosynthesis to expand the chemical diversity accessible through engineered biological systems.