各位老师和同学：

    大家好，2023年4月28日（星期五），化学生物学与生物技术学院邀请了波士顿大学刘平华副教授到访我院并进行“Ergothioneine: a case study for the search of natural product-based therapies for aging associated diseases”的讲座，欢迎大家参加！

嘉 宾：刘平华 副教授

单 位：波士顿大学化学系

主 题：Ergothioneine: a case study for the search of natural product-based therapies for aging associated diseases

时 间：2023年4月28日（星期五）15：30-17：00

地 点：F东101

邀请人：周建荣 教授

讲座摘要：

Aging is the key risk-factor for many diseases (e.g., neurodegeneration, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, cancers, and osteoporosis). 90% of people over 65 years old have at least one chronic disease, and 75% have at least two. One recent study suggested that delaying the onset of aging related diseases by 2.2 years will save $7 trillion over 50 years for the US healthcare system alone.  Over the years, several approaches have been explored to address this need: gene therapies, stem-cell based organ/tissue regeneration, and a continuous search for small molecule longevity compounds. The key scientific question for the Liu Lab is to identify longevity natural products that extend human healthspan (the length of time one lives in good health).

Using ergothioneine as a case study of longevity compounds, we will present our efforts in a few aspects:

Question #1: How to properly select natural product sources and natural product isolation methods?

Question #2: What are the most predictive assays for longevity compounds?

Question #3: What are the key reactions in the biosynthesis of the target compounds?

Question #4: How can we maximize the usage of genome and proteome information?

Question #5: For bioactive compounds, can we produce them on > kg scale for downstream needs?

嘉宾简介：

Pinghua Liu received his Master’s degree at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics and his Ph.D. degree in Bioorganic Chemistry from the University of Minnesota with Prof Hung-wen Liu on natural product biosynthetic studies. He also conducted mechanistic studies of metallo-enzymes under the guidance of Profs John Lipscomb and Lawrence Que in the last year of his Ph.D. study. He joined MIT as a postdoctoral scientist with Prof JoAnne Stubbe studying transcriptional regulations in the production of biodegradable polymers.

Currently, he is an associate professor at Boston University. His research interests include studing biosynthetic pathways of natural products (e.g., phosphonates, Nature, 2005, 437, 838-844); identifying biological active metabolites such as endoperoxides  (e.g., antimalaria drug artemisinin); developing fermentation-based production of ergothioneine with anti-aging effects.

请注意： 本次讲座需要化学、生物方向学生签到！