[Music playing]
[Air bubbles up through water and breathing]
For most who try it
scuba-diving becomes a hobby or maybe
even a passion, but for Dr. David Sherman
a professor of medicinal chemistry and
research professor at the University of
Michigan's Life Sciences Institute it
opens the door to research with the
potential to save lives.
So in much of the work that I've done in
marine environments they've been in
areas where the coral reefs are
spectacular, they're in areas of the
world that are tropical because they're
hot zones for high biodiversity.
Sherman's diving expeditions have taken
him to underwater sites off Costa Rica,
the Red Sea and Papua New Guinea in
search of microorganisms that have
evolved to produce antibiotics,
anti-cancer agents and compounds that
may aid in the fight against other
diseases including AIDS. Not all of
Sherman's expeditions have occurred
underwater. Other locations like the
deserts of Israel, the crags of the
Himalayas and deep and Central American
rainforests have been scoured for
promising soil samples. The beneficial
microbe made molecules that Sherman's
team searches for are called natural
products by scientists.  The University of
Michigan now has a growing library of
more than 40,000 samples which places
them at the forefront of natural
products discovery. So when someone
screams our library they have the
potential to identify bioactive
molecules because there are so many
interesting types of compounds in that
collection. University of Michigan
microbiologist Dr. Kathleen Collins has
worked with her team to screen thousands
of small molecules in search of a new
drug to help the human body and its
fight against AIDS. Collins turned to the
center's natural products library and
found some molecules that show the
potential to inhibit the protein that
conceal cells infected with HIV. While
stories like this show
the promise of natural products it is
not enough to simply identify new
medicinal compounds made by bacteria or
fungi. The development of a true core
laboratory at the University of Michigan
is allowing the Natural Products team to
increase the volume and scale of their
research and accelerate the path of
natural products from collected samples
all the way to drug prospect.
Ashu Tripathi is an assistant
professor in the College of Pharmacy and
Director of the Natural Products
Discovery Core and he believes U of M is
in a great position to advance natural
products discovery. Not only we are very
well placed to find the molecules we are
very well placed to do the biosynthetic
engineering to develop these molecules
into further downstream therapeutic
agent. Sherman and Tripathi also have
engaged a number of student researchers
across campus through fieldwork
including Amy Fraley. Fraley worked with
Sherman and Tripathi in the Life
Sciences Institute and through that
experience it became clear to her that
this type of research has the potential
to transform the world. They're building a foundation that is going to live on for
generations through their research,
through their research groups, and things
that they discover, and also through
their students.
