Professor Tom Shier

This group is seeking novel antimicrobial, anticancer, antifungal, etc. agents from natural sources, mostly antibiotics from soil or marine sources. Bioassay-guided fractionation is used to purify the active component, usually selective solvent extraction, normal phase thin layer chromatography with bioautography detection, and reverse phase chromatography with a step gradient. The purified samples are then submitted to the Center for Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics for LC-MS/MS analysis. Analysis of the output from these instruments requires software available from MSI. Known compounds are further analyzed by docking into potential target receptor molecules.