News and Updates

Fifteen years ago the SIM annual meeting had loads of talks dealing with natural products (I knew the S. coelicolor ActI gene sequence by heart) and there was barely a talk on fuel ethanol to be found.  Now there are plenty of biofuel talks to go along with a healthy dose of natural products (and I no longer remember the ActI sequence).  So it begs the question, what will we be listening to at the 2025 annual meeting.  As I look into my crystal ball, the answer is…. in vitro meat cultivation.

These are meat products that are grown using tissue culture technologies in the lab and TIME magazine identified in vitro meat production as one of the top 50 breakthrough ideas of 2009.  This is not a vegetable protein-imitation; it is a product derived from culturing real animal muscle tissue cells.  Unfortunately we are not talking filet mignon or porter house; the product would be more like hamburger.

The benefits of in vitro meat cultivation include: ease of feeding a larger population, limited land use, more efficient water use, well defined quality, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and reduced fuel vs. food decision making for food production.  During this past summer, a small group of scientists met in Gothenburg, Sweden (organized by Chalmers University of Technology and the European Science Foundation) to review the technology components necessary to reduce this concept to practice.  This included discussions on cell lines and culture medium nutrients derived from photosynthetic organisms such as cyanobacteria.

So at the 2025 annual meeting, a company may not simply provide money for the banquet, they may produce the entrée.

Essayons!

About Neal Connors
Dr. Neal Connors is currently the owner/president of Phoenix BioConsulting, LLC (www.phoenixbioconsulting.com); a company providing consulting services to the fermentation, industrial microbiology, biotechnology, and legal sectors.

Bacteria which infect people with cystic fibrosis could help combat other antibiotic-resistant microbes, according to a team from Cardiff and Warwick Universities.

Continuous use of existing antibiotics means that resistant bacteria are now causing major health problems all over the world. New antibiotics are urgently needed to combat the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria such as the MRSA superbug.

Now a surprising source of hope has emerged in the form of Burkholderia, a group of bacteria which can cause severe lung infections in people with the genetic disorder cystic fibrosis. However, the Cardiff and Warwick team has now discovered antibiotics from Burkholderia are effective against MRSA and even other cystic fibrosis infecting bacteria.

Dr Eshwar Mahenthiralingam, of Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences, has been studying Burkholderia for the last decade. Using forensic fingerprinting tests to genetically identify the bacteria, Dr Mahenthiralingam’s research group has tracked strains all over the world and helped develop guidelines to prevent it spreading.

By the summer of 2007, Dr Mahenthiralingam had built up a large collection of Burkholderia bacteria. He and his team then decided to screen them for antibiotics active against other bacteria, particularly drugs with the potential to kill other bacteria that infect cystic fibrosis patients. Over the next two years, Dr Mahenthiralingam’s team discovered that around one quarter of Burkholderia bacteria have very strong antibiotic activity on multidrug-resistant pathogens such as MRSA. One particular strain, Burkholderia ambifaria, was found to produce two very potent antibiotics active on resistant bacteria, in particular Acinetobacter baumanii.

The chemical structures of the antibiotics, called enacyloxins, were determined by Professor Gregory Challis and Dr. Lijiang Song at the University of Warwick, demonstrating that they belong to one of the most successful families of natural product drugs, the polyketides. Other examples of polyketides include erythromycin, which is used to cure many bacterial infections, and doxorubicin, used as an anti-cancer drug. Professor Challis commented: “The combination of enzymes used by Burkholderia to make the enacyloxins is very unusual. Our insights into this process should allow us to use cutting edge synthetic biology techniques to produce novel enacyloxin analogues with improved pharmaceutical properties.”

The team’s findings have now been published in the journal Chemistry and Biology. Dr Mahenthiralingam commented: “Burkholderia are soil bacteria like Streptomyces, which are the source of most of our current antibiotics. Our research therefore offers real hope of a completely new source for the identification and engineering of highly potent antibiotics. With antibiotic resistant bacteria causing great suffering around the world, these new sources are urgently needed.”

Greg Challis

Professor of Chemical Biology
Department of Chemistry
University of Warwick

I read in Fierce Biotech’s April 6, 2011 e-newsletter that an FDA advisory committee has recommended approval of San Diego-based Optimer Pharmaceutical’s fidaxomicin, a narrow spectrum antibacterial for the treatment of Clostridium difficile infections.  C. difficile is responsible for 20% of antibiotic-associated diarrhea cases in hospitals.

Full FDA approval of a drug usually follows a positive review from its advisory committees.  Approval of any new antibiotic is welcome news given the increase in resistant pathogens.  However as a natural product “geek”, I was thrilled to learn that fidaxomicin is a natural product produced by fermentation of Dactylosporangium aurantiacum subspecies hamdenesis.

(reprinted from SIM News V. 60 N. 6)

I am honored to begin my term as the President of the Society for Industrial Microbiology (SIM) for 2010-2011. SIM has been in existence for more than 60 years now, and plays the role of a leading society for industrial microbiology and biotechnology globally. I have always made SIM a priority in my professional career. I have thoroughly enjoyed my association with the Society over the years, especially being able to interact with wonderful members, both individual and corporate, and outstanding staff. It is my sincere hope to contribute to the further development of our Society with the participation and support of all our members and directors.