BIO1 Alkaloids: Biosynthesis and Medicinal Importance

Alkaloids are nitrogen-containing natural products produced primarily by plants but also by all other types of organism. They have a wide range of biological and medicinal properties, e.g. stimulants, toxins, hallucinogens, anti-cancer, anti-malaria, etc. In this lecture we will look at ways in which we can discover how an organism makes a particular natural product and then look at the biosynthetic pathways to one or two of the huge number of known alkaloids. Finally we will look at ways in which people have exploited existing biosynthetic pathways to make altered natural products or to transfer production to more amenable organisms.

Number of sessions: 1