Natural product chemistry is a sub-field of organic chemistry that is interested in the isolation, structure elucidation, biosynthesis, and synthesis of small molecule (< 2000 daltons) organic specialized metabolites produced for defence, signalling, and communication by various living organisms. These organic specialized metabolites are termed natural products by chemists studying them. Organic specialized metabolites are marked by their uniqueness, being the products of various mechanisms of natural selection, and are often singular to a species, a region, an ecological niche, or even a microbial strain. Chemically, they are marked by structural complexity – rich with stereocenters and heteroatoms. Societally, they have a wide variety of uses including pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and dyes. Indeed, current antibiotics overwhelmingly were characterized by natural product chemists from bacteria or fungi. Currently, due to the intersectionality of natural product chemistry, natural products are of interest to many varying scientists. Synthetic organic chemists make innovations in the study of the total synthesis of novel natural products and biochemists study the particular enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of the natural products as just some examples. Due to the intersectionality of natural product chemistry – natural product chemists use a diverse set of toolboxes to uncover new structures and new activities from a wide array of organisms and ecological niches.

The Morgan group is particularly interested in the natural products waiting to be uncovered in the diverse ecologies of the northern boreal forests. Of particular interest are those natural products produced in bacteria from insect microbiomes of the northern boreal forests that have uses as sustainable agrochemicals, other bioactivities, or are involved in chemical ecology. To prioritize bacterial species for the isolation and structure elucidation of natural products from crude extracts, a variety of tools are utilized including gene clusters, gene cluster families, NMR shielding constants, UV/chromatographic properties, and bioassay results. To complete the structure elucidation of the purified natural products, standard tools such as NMR and mass spectrometry are used. Stereochemistry is generally solved in this group by a mixture of standard experimental tools, including through-space NMR experiments and synthetic transformations. Currently, the group is especially interested in the PK-NRP hybrids that bacteria produce, especially those with unique nonproteinogenic amino acid residues. When they identify new structures or structural families with bioactive properties, their aim is to create semisynthetic and synthetic versions (congeners) with enhanced bioactivity. Additionally, they are exploring sustainable methods for natural product synthesis, such as using flow chemistry in the production process.

Undergraduate research experience is very valuable. All undergraduate students interested in natural product chemistry are welcome and encouraged to apply for UNBC’s Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) award, Chem 499s, and Chem 430s under my supervision. Students with chemistry, biochemistry, biology, and computer science backgrounds are welcome. It should be noted that Org Lab I and II are generally essential background knowledge for work in a natural product chemistry lab. Additionally, for students interested in natural product chemistry, it is highly recommended to take Chem 210 (Analytical I) and Chem 310 (Analytical II) which support the background in chromatography and advanced organic spectroscopic knowledge that is indispensable in natural product chemistry research. Students with a biology background who are interested in microbial metabolites are also welcome for select projects. Students with a background in computer science who are interested in bioinformatics as it applies to natural product discovery are also most welcome for select projects – in this case, some organic chemistry or biochemistry courses would be advantageous.