Current Projects
The Marine Natural Products Group at the University of Prince Edward Island is engaged in projects directed at the development of sustainable production methods of bioactive marine metabolites and discovering new bioactive bioproducts. The latter group includes metabolites with activities in assays of relevance to human health and with activity as antifouling agents.
Our discovery program encompasses both macroorganisms (e.g. sponges, tunicates, octocorals, algae) and microbes as sources of bioactive compounds. These organisms are collected from diverse marine habitats in the Caribbean and Atlantic Canada. The library of fractionated extracts generated from these collection programs is screened through a variety of bioassays many of which are collaborative projects with groups at UPEI, NRC-INH, McGill University as well as industrial partners.
The anti-fouling program aims to identify marine natural products that inhibit the settlement of tunicate larvae and thus offer protection for the mussel and oyster industries. The production methods under development involve a search for bacterial sources of bioactive compounds isolated from marine invertebrates, and the cloning of biosynthetic genes. Students, research associates and post doctoral fellows are involved in many of the facets of marine natural products research including: synthesis, isolation & characterization, microbiology and molecular biology.
