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| Name |
van der Donk, Wilfred A. |
| Location
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University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| Primary Field
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Biochemistry |
| Secondary Field
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Chemistry |
 Election Citation
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Wilfred A. van der Donk studies enzymatic reactions in the biosynthesis of antibiotics and phosphonates and uses this to engineer the structures of natural products.
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Research Interests
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Wilfred van der Donk's laboratory uses organic chemistry, enzymology, bioinformatics and molecular biology to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of enzyme catalysis. Of particular interest in recent years have been enzymatic reactions in the biosynthesis of cyclic peptide antibiotics and phosphonates that are used in medicine and agriculture. His group has employed understanding of the chemistry catalyzed by enzymes to engineer the structures of natural products, to mine genomes for novel compounds with improved or new activities, and to develop enzymes for industrial use. His laboratory discovered a unique example of natural combinatorial biosynthesis of cyclic peptides in which one enzyme generates dozens of polycyclic peptides of very diverse structures and ring topologies, which has raised new questions about their function and evolution.
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