This research project will establish High Throughput Screening methods and protocols for screening of functional microbes and their metabolites in order to fully utilize the rich microbial resources at IMCAS.  By application of HTS approach to idetify microbes, and by metabolic engineering to optimize the production of functional products, we hope to establsih efficient menthods to find products from microbial resources.  By development of bioassays suitable for HTS, we will be able to quickly screen microbial metabolite and pure natural product libraries, and through bioassay-guided purification, structure elucidation,activity validation,and stucture modification to find lead compounds that could be potentially used as medicines and other products.

The goal of this research project is develop High Throughput Screening protocols for functional microbes and metabolites.  Within four years, we will build a library of 20,000 microbial metabolites, a library of 3,00 pure natural products (80 of which are new compounds),and five HTS bioassays for microbial metabolites.  In the meantime, we will develop HTS methods ro screen for clavulanic acid and avermectin producing microbes, and use engineering methods to optimize the yields of these products.