Publications

Ko, Y-S, Gu, D., Lee, A., Al Marzooqi, D., Zhang, W. "Engineering Escherichia coli for the Production of the PK/NRP Hybrid Antibiotic Salivabactin" ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2025, 13 (27), 10556-10562 Link 

Yao, M., Zhang, W. "Where Molecules Meet Mucus: Mutanofactins in the Oral Microbiome" ACS Cent. Sci. 2025, 11, 4, 508–510 (First Reactions) Link 

Cheng, Y., Pang, H., Zhang, W. "Exquisite Complex Reaction Cascade in the Natural 1,2,4-Triazine Assembly" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 14, 12075–12081 Link 

Gu, D., Zhai, R., Daymo, B., Xue, Y., Luo, C., Zhang, W. “Enzymatic Synthesis of a Polyketide/Nonribosomal Peptide Hybrid Antibiotic, Salivabactin” Biochemistry 2024, 63, 24, 3213–3219 Link

 Del Rio Flores, A., Zhai, R., Kastner, D. W., Seshadri, K., Yang, S., Matias, K. D., Shen, Y., Cai, W., Narayanamoorthy, M., Do, N. B., Xue, Z., Marzooqi, D. A., Kulik, H. J., Zhang, W. “Enzymatic synthesis of azide by a promiscuous N-nitrosylase” Nat. Chem. 2024, 16, 2066–2075. Link Preview

 Del Rio Flores, A., Zhai, R., Zhang, W. “Isonitrile biosynthesis by non-heme iron(II)-dependent oxidases/decarboxylases” Methods in Enzymology 2024, 704, 143-172. Link 

Jia, K., Sun, H., Zhou, Y., Zhang, W. “Biosynthesis of isonitrile lipopeptides” Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 2024, 81, 102470. Link 

The Atomwise AIMS Program. Atomwise AIMS Program. "AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study." Sci Rep. 2024, Apr 2;14(1):7526. Link

Hu Z, Gu D, Skyrud W, Du Y, Zhai R, Wang J, Zhang W. "Engineered Biosynthesis and Anticancer Studies of Ring-Expanded Antimycin-Type Depsipeptides." ACS Synth. Biol. 2024, 13, 5, 1562–1571 Link

Liu, M.D., Du, Y., Koupaei, S.K., Kim, N.R., Fischer, M.S., Zhang, W., Traxler, M.F. “Surface-active antibiotic production as a multifunctional adaptation for postfire microorganisms” ISME J. 2024, 18(1), wrae022. Link

Good NM, Kang-Yun CS, Su MZ, Zytnick AM, Barber CC, Vu HN, Grace JM, Nguyen HH, Zhang W, Skovran E, Fan M, Park DM, Martinez-Gomez NC. "Scalable and Consolidated Microbial Platform for Rare Earth Element Leaching and Recovery from Waste Sources." Environ Sci Technol. 2024, Jan 9;58(1):570-579.  Link

Do, H., Li, ZR., Tripathi, P.K. et al. "Engineered probiotic overcomes pathogen defences using signal interference and antibiotic production to treat infection in mice." Nat Microbiol 9, 502–513 (2024). Link

Jia K, Wang J, Zhai R, Du Y, Kira J, Wu C, Qian PY, Zhang W. "Abi Family Protein, DidK, Is Involved in the Maturation of Anticancer Depsipeptide, Didemnin B." ACS Chem Biol.  2023, Oct 20;18(10):2300-2308. Link 

Seidel J, Du Y, Devanathan R, Law R, Hu Z, Zill NA, Iavarone AT, Zhang W. Tag and Snag: "A New Platform for Bioactive Natural Product Screening from Mixtures." Molecules. 2023, Jul 28;28(15):5726. Link.

Jenner M, Hai Y, Nguyen HH, Passmore M, Skyrud W, Kim J, Garg NK, Zhang W, Ogorzalek Loo RR, Tang Y. "Elucidating the molecular programming of a nonlinear non-ribosomal peptide synthetase responsible for fungal siderophore biosynthesis." Nat Commun. 2023, May 17;14(1):2832. Link 

Zill NA, Du Y, Marinkovich S, Gu D, Seidel J, Zhang W. "Bioactive Natural Product Discovery via Deuterium Adduct Bioactivity Screening." ACS Chemical Biology 2023, 18 (5), 1192-1199. Link

Del Rio Flores A, Narayanamoorthy M, Cai W, Zhai R, Yang S, Shen Y, Seshadri K, De Matias K, Xue Z, Zhang W. "Biosynthesis of Isonitrile Lipopeptide Metallophores from Pathogenic Mycobacteria." Biochemistry 2023, 62 (3), 824-834. Link

McClung, D. J., Du, Y., Antonich, D. J., Bonet, B., Zhang, W., Traxler, M. F. "Harnessing Rare Actinomycete Interactions and Intrinsic Antimicrobial Resistance Enables Discovery of an Unusual Metabolic Inhibitor." mBio. 13:e00393-22. 2022. Link

Gu, D., Zhang, W. "Chapter Fifteen - Engineered biosynthesis of alkyne-tagged polyketides." Meth. Enzymol. 2022, Volume 665, 347-373. Link

Del Rio Flores, A., Kastner, D. W., Du, Y., Narayanamoorthy, M., Shen, S., Cai, W., Vennelakanti, V., Zill, N. A., Dell, L. B., Zhai, R., Kulik, H. J., Zhang, W. "Probing the Mechanism of Isonitrile Formation by a Non-Heme Iron(II)-Dependent Oxidase/Decarboxylase." J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 13, 5893-5901. Link Selected as JACS Cover

Del Rio Flores, A., Barber, C. C., Narayanamoorthy, M., Gu, D., Shen, Y., Zhang, W. "Biosynthesis of Isonitrile- and Alkyne-Containing Natural Products." Annu. Rev. Chem. Biomol. Eng. 2022, 13:1.1 1.24.Link

Del Rio Flores, A., Twigg, F. F., Du, Y., Cai, W., Aguirre, D. Q., Sato, M., Dror, M. J., Narayanamoorthy, M., Geng, J., Zill, N. A., Zhai, R., Zhang, W. "Biosynthesis of triacsin featuring an N-hydroxytriazene pharmacophore." Nat. Chem. Biol. 2021, 17, 1305-1313. Link Recommended on Faculty Opinions

Li, Z., Sun, J., Du, Y., Pan, A., Zeng, L., Maboudian, R., Burne, R., Qian, P., Zhang, W. "Mutanofactin promotes adhesion and biofilm formation of cariogenic Streptococcus mutans." Nat. Chem. Biol. 2021, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-021-00745-2. Link

Highlight in Nature Highlight in Nat. Chem. Biol. 

Barber, C., Zhang, W. "Small molecule natural products in human nasal/oral microbiota." J. Ind. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 2021, kuab010, https://doi.org/10.1093/jimb/kuab010. Link 

Jonnalagadda, R., Del Rio Flores, A., Cai, W., Mehmood, R., Narayanamoorthy, M., Ren, C., Zaragoza, J., Kulik, H., Zhang, W., Drennan, C. "Biochemical and crystallographic investigations into isonitrile formation by a non-heme iron-dependent oxidase/decarboxylase." J. Biol. Chem. 2021. Link 

Li, J., Du, Y., Gu, D., Cai, W., Green, A., Ng, S., Leung, A., Del Rio Flores, A., Zhang, W. "Discovery and biosynthesis of clostyrylpyrones from the obligate anaerobe Clostridium roseum." Org. Lett. 2020, 22, 21, 8204-8209. Link 

Zou, L., Spanogiannopoulos, P., Pieper, L.M., Chien, H-C., Cai, W., Khuri, N., Pottel, J., Vora, B., Ni, Z., Tsakalozou, E., Zhang, W., Shoichet, B.K., Giacomini, K.M., Turnbaugh, P.J. "Bacterial metabolism rescues the inhibition of intestinal drug absorption by food and drug additives." PNAS. 2020, 117, 27, 16009-16018. Link

Xu, P., Modavi, C., Demaree, B., Twigg, F., Liang, B., Sun, C., Zhang, W., Abate, A. "Microfluidic automated plasmid library enrichment for biosynthetic gene cluster discovery." Nucleic Acids Res. 2020, 48, 8, e48. Link

Li, J., Barber, C., Herman, N., Cai, W., Zafrir, E., Du, Y., Zhu, X., Skyrud, W., Zhang, W. "Investigation of secondary metabolism in the industrial butanol hyper-producer Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum N1-4." J. Ind. Microbiol. & Biot. 2020, 47, 319-328. Link

Porterfield, W., Poenateetai, N., Zhang, W. "Engineered Biosynthesis of Alkyne-tagged Polyketides by Type I PKSs." iScience. 2020, 23, 100938. Link Highlight in Trends in Biotechnology

Skyrud, W., Del Rio Flores, A., Zhang, W. "Biosynthesis of Cyclohexanecarboxyl-CoA Highlights a Promiscuous Shikimoyl-CoA Synthetase and a FAD-Dependent Dehydratase." ACS Catal. 2020, 10, 5, 3360-3364. Link

Huang, Y., Cai, W., Del Rio Flores, A., Twigg, F. F., Zhang, W. "Facile Discovery and Quantification of Isonitrile Natural Products via Tetrazine-Based Click Reactions." Anal. Chem. 2020, 92, 1, 599-602. Link

Hu, Z., Zhang, W. "Signaling Natural Products from Human Pathogenic Bacteria." ACS Infect. Dis. 2020, 6, 1, 25-33. Link