
Building natural products
Natural products are molecules produced by living organisms and include some of our most powerful drugs. Emerging discoveries in this field have allowed scientists to deepen our understanding of how natural products are assembled and how they can be harnessed for widespread applications.
Submit an abstract
Abstract submission begins Sept. 14. If you submit by Oct. 12, you'll get a decision by Nov. 1. The regular submission deadline is Nov. 30. See the categories.
This program at Discover BMB 2024 is focused on recent advances in natural product biochemistry and biotechnology. The first session focuses on the emerging area of natural products from higher eukaryotes and animals; the second session focuses on natural products from microbiomes and symbionts; and the final session focuses on the biochemistry and biotechnology of natural product genome mining.
We’ll hear about the amazing discoveries in this field, some of which were powered by major technological advances. We’ll also hear how discoveries in natural products biochemistry are now in turn powering new applications in biotechnology related to biocatalysis, agriculture and sustainable chemical production.
Keywords: Natural products, biocatalysis, microbiome.
Who should attend: Anyone interested in natural products, biocatalysis, the microbiome or the future of biotechnology.
Theme song: “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane
This session is powered by alkaloids.
Advances in natural products biochemistry and technology
Natural products from higher eukaryotes and animals
Chair: Yi Tang
Bradley Moore, University of California, San Diego

Rebecca Butcher, University of Florida
Emily Derbyshire, Duke University
Jing-Ke Weng, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Natural products from microbiomes and symbionts
Chair: Katherine Ryan
Jason Crawford, Yale University
Nancy Keller, University of Wisconsin—Madison
Alessandra Eustaquio, University of Illinois Chicago
Mohammad Seyedsayamdost, Princeton University
Biochemistry and biotechnology of natural product genome mining
Chair: Alessandra Eustaquiol
Jamie Link, Princeton University
Katherine Ryan, University of British Columbia
Gerald Wright, McMaster University
Yi Tang, University of California, Los Angeles
Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?
Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition weekly.
Learn moreGet the latest from ASBMB Today
Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.
Latest in Science
Science highlights or most popular articles

Ten interesting quotes from the JBC archives
Older papers include archaic quirks and long-abandoned biological concepts. Some show flashes of ideas that grew into their own fields, and others show that some things never change.

Lipid biomarkers hold clues to stroke recovery
Scientists at the University of Arizona found that a lipid mediator accumulates with the waves of inflammation associated with stroke and foamy macrophages.

From the JBC archives: Madness, indoles and mercury-based cathartics
A 1907 paper sought to resolve an ongoing question of whether indole, a bacterial molecule in the gut, could cause insanity if overproduced.

From the journals: JBC
Linking modified cysteines to cell migration. Recognizing protein tags for degradation. Disrupting C. difficile toxin production. Read about recent JBC papers on these topics.

Becoming a scientific honey bee
At the World Science Forum, a speaker’s call for scientists to go out and “make honey” felt like the answer to a question Katy Brewer had been considering for a long time.

Mutant RNA exosome protein linked to neurodevelopmental defects
Researchers at Emory University find that a missense mutation impairs RNA exosome assembly and translation and causes neurological disease.