News & Events

When

Date - September 14, 2016
1:00 pm

What

Ph.D. Literature Seminar—751

Title: “ChemGPS-NP: a tool for navigating biologically relevant chemical space”

Abstract:

Natural products are extraordinarily diverse, owing to the complex biosynthetic pathways from which they arise. This diversity makes them a valuable source for new drugs but also makes their analysis costly and time-consuming. Dr. Anders Backlund of Uppsala University, Sweden, has developed a multifaceted tool, ChemGPS-NP, that allows for the prioritization of compounds in the search for new drug leads. Utilizing predictive statistical technologies, Dr. Backlund and his team were able to generate a “chemical space” map specifically tuned for natural products. This map allows for compounds to be placed onto a unique coordinate system based on individual chemical descriptors. By placing compounds onto this map, researchers can visualize the chemical properties most important for different biological activities. This tool can be utilized to complete phylogenetic and chemographic comparisons, make bioactivity predictions, and to select organisms and samples for further study, ultimately allowing scientists to process the vast chemical landscape of natural products in a more informed and efficient way.