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Faculty Profile Last Modified Time: 10:40:21 AM Thu, 3 Jun 2021   Contact Information Gerald Bills Associated Profiles  Professor, Texas Therapeutics Institute, Institute of Molecular Medicine, UT Health Science Center at Houston   3SCR6.4676    gerald.f.bills@uth.tmc.edu     713-486-2344    Web Link    Antifungals, Biosynthesis, Fermentation, Mycology, Natural Products    Associated Profiles Professional Preparation Research and Expertise Appointments  Professional Preparation  Degree Major Institution Year  PhD   Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University 1985  Research and Expertise Research Interests   For the past 25 years, I have worked in the field of natural products drug discovery from microorganisms, first at Merck & Co., and then at Fundación MEDINA, before joining UTHealth in 2012. During this time, technological breakthroughs in microbial genomics have led to a new view that natural product biosynthetic pathways are vastly more diverse and experimentally tractable than previously imagined. Experimental tractability has led to the functional characterization of pathways of many historically important natural products and new natural products that have been revealed through genomic mining. This view and other converging technologies such as measuring microbial diversity from metagenomic approaches, improved culturing strategies, engineering of unnatural natural products via bioengineering, improved analytical mass spectrometry and NMR, and the availability of novel disease targets are rapidly changing the approachability of natural product drug discovery. The long term goals of our lab are to discover how and why fungi and other microbes make bioactive natural products and to find practical applications for these molecules, including antifungal and cancer drugs. Our lab employs genomics to interpret and predict genetically encoded chemical diversity of microorganisms using filamentous fungi as model organisms, especially biosynthetic families relevant for pharmaceutical intervention in human diseases. For example, we have characterized biosynthetic pathways responsible for the family of echinocandin antifungal drugs, including pneumocandin B0, the starting molecule for the antifungal drug CANCIDAS. We have re-programmed pneumocandin biosynthesis to produce new analogues that have improved product purity, increased potency. In parallel, we use pathway genetics and genomic manipulation in the producing organisms to aid in supplying large quantities of these natural products to support synthesis of new derivatives and overproduce drug-precursor molecules. We also carry out fundamental discovery of new bioactive natural products that inhibit growth of human pathogens, including Cryptococcus neoformans, the causal agent of Cryptococcus meningitis.  Publications/Creative Works Click here to search for this faculty member's publications on PubMed.  Appointments Title Department / School Institution Professor Texas Therapeutics Institute, Institute of Molecular Medicine UT Health Science Center at Houston

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