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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Prof. Julia Kubanek, Georgia Tech (Bio/Chem)
Chemical warfare in the ocean, or, how studying marine ecology can lead to drug discovery
During the course of 3+ billion years, living organisms have evolved complex metabolic pathways for the production and perception of chemical cues. These cues mediate interactions among friends (mates; social groups; symbiotic organisms) and foes (competitors; predators & prey; hosts & pathogens). Humans have found ways to manipulate the chemical language of other organisms for our own use, leading to many of our medicines, agricultural products, and perfumes. But our manipulation of nature is not original - organisms have been co-opting each other's chemical signals (and in some cases, the genes for producing these molecules) for at least millions of years. The exact content of this seminar is not yet determined - but expect to hear about most of the following: new drugs from the sea and why natural product drug discovery is not done; seaweeds and what you have in common with them; unique biosynthetic pathways and organic molecules that come from organisms under attack; mapping the chemical ecology of marine organisms using imaging mass spectrometry; and how Georgia Tech is a great place to develop collaborations.
