Research reveals new starting points for the rapid and targeted development of future drugs
Many important medicines, such as antibiotics and anticancer drugs, are derived from natural products of bacteria. The enzyme complexes that produce these active ingredients have a modular design that makes them ideal tools for synthetic biology. By exploring protein evolution, a team led by Helge Bode from the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany, has found new "fusion sites" that enable faster and more targeted drug development.