Chemical and biological diversity of the animal world
Understanding the diverse biochemistry of animals and their symbiotic microbes for applications in biotechnology, environment, and human health and disease
Biodiverse animals are important in their own right, and yet biodiversity is in crisis. Beyond their inherent worth, animals are rich sources of drug-like chemicals and useful enzymes that have been extensively applied to human health and disease.
Our lab focuses on biochemical pathways from animals and their microbiomes. We aim to understand how molecules are made, and to apply that understanding in creating new technologies and new molecules aimed at improving human health.
Our work is highly interdisciplinary, leading us to collaborate with many researchers. We are grateful to our colleagues from many different labs who join us in these projects. Further, our lab benefits from a welcoming environment with diverse scientists working together on challenging problems.
Some of our major research themes include (described in publications)
Image created using biorender.com
A. Biosynthesis
1) The microbiome. Animals live in a happy symbiotic association with microbes, which often produce chemicals that help the animals to survive. Some of these chemicals are pharmaceuticals. We study unique symbiotic interactions, focusing on microbial genes and proteins that make important chemicals in nature.
2) Animal genomes. The biosynthesis of most animal natural products is completely unknown, representing a new frontier of biochemical diversity. We have developed approaches to unveil these challenging and previously hidden biochemical pathways.
3) Diversity-driven biosynthesis and synthetic biology. Integrating the information obtained from the above areas, we have designed permissive biosynthetic systems to enable next-generation synthetic biology. Some of these tools are widely used in diverse applications. Dr. Schmidt has also applied some of the early methods to co-found synthetic biology companies.
Diverse invertebrate animals on a coral reef
Photo: Bailey Miller
Image created using biorender.com
B. Drug Discovery
1) Ecology-driven drug discovery. Natural products made by animals and their microbiomes have an ecological purpose. A driving principle of our work is to link ecology to drug discovery, for example by tracing symbiotic bacterial interactions that lead to antibiotics, or by describing interactions between animals that impact neurons.
2) Neuroactivity and pain. Natural products impacting animal interactions and ecology are often useful leads for treating chronic pain and other difficult neurological diseases.
3) Infectious diseases. We have lately focused on difficult bacterial infections, discovering compounds from symbiosis that target multidrug-resistant, lethal pathogens.
Our lab is located in an outstanding facility on the medical campus at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Our lab is part of several programs at the University of Utah, including the Department of Medicinal Chemistry in the College of Pharmacy, the Department of Chemistry, the School of Biological Sciences, the Programs of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Biology, and training grants in Chemical Biology and Microbial Pathogenesis.
Lab photo November 2023
Eric W. Schmidt, PhD Distinguished Professor, Marine Natural Products Laboratory, University of Utah