# CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY OF CERTAIN ANTIBIOTICS

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN · 1992 · $232,942

## Abstract

Synthesis and biosynthesis of a number of biologically active
natural products derived from marine macroorganisms and
terrestrial microorganisms will be studied.

The didemnins (including didemnin B, currently in clinical
trials) will be modified chemically by incorporating
stereoisomers of isostatine as well as other amino acids in the
ring, by altering side chain length, and by replacing ester
groups by amides.  They will also be studied biosynthetically as
either cyanobacterial (symbiont) or tunicate products.  Similar
studies (both synthetic and biosynthetic) will be carried out
with the eudistomins, exceedingly potent antiviral agents.

Synthetic and biosynthetic investigations will also be carried
out with nodularin and the microcystins, potent hepatotoxins from
the cyanobacteria Nodularia spumigena and Microcystis aeruginosa.
Biosynthetic attention will be directed toward Adda, the C20B-
amino acid component of the toxins.

Synthesis of methanofuran, the first coenzyme in methanogenesis,
will be completed.

Biosynthetic studies will be directed toward the aminocyclitol
antibiotics validamycin (employed commercially for sheath blight
disease in rice) fortimicin (with a 1,4-diaminocyclitol unit),
and neomycin (for in vivo 13C NMR studies); toward the reverse
transcriptase inhibitor geldanamycin and the DNA inhibitor
pactamycin (for the mutasynthetic incorporation of subunits by
idiotrophs and for an in vivo NMR study of geldanamycin); toward
berninamycin (for 13C studies involving [13C]serine, threonine,
valine, and alpha-aminoadipic acid); toward the crown gall
disease biocontrol agent agrocin 84 (for determination or
confirmation of its structure and demonstration of precursor
incorporations); and toward bromotyrosine metabolites of the
sponge Aplysina fistularis (for completion of the biosynthetic
pathway).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3124076
- **Project number:** 5R01AI001278-36
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
- **SAM.gov UEI:** Y8CWNJRCNN91
- **Principal Investigator:** KENNETH L RINEHART
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1992
- **Award amount:** $232,942
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1974-12-01 → 1994-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3124076

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3124076, CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY OF CERTAIN ANTIBIOTICS (5R01AI001278-36). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3124076. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*