New ‘Genome Mining’ Technique Streamlines Discovery from Nature
Method allows scientists to match compounds produced in the wild back to their genomic origins
A newly developed method for microscopically extracting, or “mining,” information from genomes could represent a significant boost in the search for new therapeutic drugs and improve science’s understanding of basic functions such as how cells communicate with one another.
Analyzing marine and terrestrial samples obtained from Alaska to San Diego’s La Jolla Cove, a research technique jointly created by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UC San Diego and their colleagues taps powerful laboratory instruments to trace promising chemical compounds back to their genomic roots. The method is described in the October 9 online publication of the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
