College of Pharmacy

Research

The research in Xihou Yin’s laboratory is focused on the natural product antibiotic biosynthesis, regulation and resistance. We systematically clone, inactivate, complement, express, identify and characterize the antibiotic biosynthetic genes and gene clusters from bacteria Streptomyces, Actinoplanes and Bacillus. We employ the combined techniques and approaches from molecular genetics, molecular biology, microbiology, biochemistry and natural product chemistry to address the basic and applied sciences of antibiotic production. The ongoing research “Genetic and Chemical Approaches to Novel Lipid II Binding Peptide Antibiotics” is funded by the National Institutes of Health. Below are the representative areas of our longstanding interests.
1. Functional characterization of the antibiotic biosynthetic gene cluster.
2. Genetic engineering and reprogramming of the antibiotic biosynthetic pathway.
3. Self-resistance mechanisms of the peptide antibiotics in Actinomyces.
4. Genetic discrimination of the antibiotic resistant mechanisms operating in the producing organisms and bacterial pathogens (Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus uberis and Klebsiella pneumoniae).
5. Genetic regulation of the antibiotic production and strain improvement.
6. Genomic and proteinomic approaches to the antibiotic regulatory network and resistant components, and to activation of the cryptic antibiotic biosynthetic pathway.
7. Design, development and optimization of the vector-host systems to facilitate the functional analysis of the antibiotic biosynthetic genes and gene clusters.
8. Biological evaluation of the antimicrobial and immunomodulatory activities of the novel natural products from the bacteria, medicinal plants and wood extracts.
9. Mechanisms of the programmed cell death (apoptosis) in Streptomyces.