Sara Eslami

As antibiotic resistance becomes increasingly prevalent, discovery of new antibiotics and investigation of novel mechanisms to treat bacterial infections has become a burgeoning area of research. Lanthipeptides, a class of natural products, are ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides i.e. RiPPs, characterized by post-translationally crosslinked lanthionine residues. The van der Donk group has been particularly instrumental in discovering and elucidating the mechanisms behind this class of RiPPs. My research involves utilizing bioinformatics to discover previously unidentified lanthipeptides as well as novel biosynthetic enzymes and their corresponding natural products.