First of Four Science Lectures set for November 2
Elmira, NY (10/30/2018) — Elmira College will host the first of four lectures in this year's " Lecture Series in the Sciences" this Friday, November 2, at 6:00 p.m. in Peterson Chapel. The annual series highlights various topics ranging from plant sciences, forensic science, marine biology, and bacteria.
Friday's lecture will be presented by Brad Hover '07, Ph.D., who will be discussing "Microbes - Nature's Little Chemists." Hover states that "Microbes possess a wide array of biosynthetic machinery in order create an arsenal of small molecule metabolites to support not only their own life cycle but also to eliminate or outcompete other microbes. Historically, metabolites produced by bacteria have been a major source of lead compounds in the development of clinically used therapeutics - representing more than 60% of the FDA approved anti-infective and anti-tumorigenic agents currently on the market. This is due to the fact that small molecule metabolites are the only compound class that have been selected for under evolutionary pressure for their abilities to evade resistance mechanisms, solve problems with bioavailability, and enhance specificity to unique targets. However, many of these clinically useful metabolites are from a small subset of cultured bacteria, as only about 1% of environmental bacteria can be readily cultured in the laboratory setting. It is possible to access the untapped biosynthetic potential of this uncultured majority of environmental bacteria by isolating and cloning their DNA into an amenable host strain for heterologous expression. This process is the foundation of Lodo Therapeutics' "metagenomic" drug discovery platform. My seminar will focus not only on my recent work to industrialize this discovery effort, but touch on my last 15 years of research in microbiology, enzymology, and chemistry."
The "Lecture Series in the Sciences" is free and open to the public.
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Alumnus Dr. Brad Hover '07 is the first speaker in this year's four-part "Lecture Series in the Sciences." Hover's lecture, title "Microbes – Nature’s Little Chemists," is this Friday, 11/2, at 6:00 p.m. in Peterson Chapel. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Elmira College
Jennifer L. Swain, 607-735-1894, jswain@elmira.eduShare this Story
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