Kou-San Ju, PhD

Associate Professor

Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy

Research Areas: Division of Medicinal Chemistry & Pharmacognosy, Central Nervous System Disorders, Infectious Diseases, Chemical Biology, Computational Biomedicine & Data Analytics, Natural Products

290 Aronoff Laboratory

ju.109@osu.edu

(614) 292-8847

Professional Website

Professional Interests

My interdisciplinary research program is inspired by the metabolic diversity of microorganisms and the vast array of compounds they produce. Working at the interface of chemistry and biology, my group combines approaches in chemistry, biochemistry, bioinformatics, genetics, and systems biology to discover new natural products, identify bioactivity and mode of action, and to decipher the metabolic basis of their biosynthesis. Ultimately, we seek to translate insights gained from our investigations into solutions for modern day challenges facing human health and the environment. These include new antibiotics to counter drug-resistant pathogens, novel herbicides and biocontrol agents to improve pest management and food security, and engineered biocatalysts to facilitate chemical production by green chemistry and industrial biotechnology.

Publications

Phosphonoalamides Reveal the Biosynthetic Origin of Phosphonoalanine Natural Products and a Convergent Pathway for Their Diversification, Angewandte Chemie. 2024 Aug | journal-article. doi: 10.1002/ange.202405052.
Phosphonoalamides Reveal the Biosynthetic Origin of Phosphonoalanine Natural Products and a Convergent Pathway for Their Diversification, Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 2024 Aug | journal-article. doi: 10.1002/anie.202405052.
Biosynthesis of Bacillus Phosphonoalamides Reveals Highly Specific Amino Acid Ligation, ACS Chemical Biology. 2024 Jul | journal-article. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.4c00190.
microbeMASST: a taxonomically informed mass spectrometry search tool for microbial metabolomics data, Nature Microbiology. 2024 Feb | journal-article. doi: 10.1038/s41564-023-01575-9.
Discovery of Antimicrobial Phosphonopeptide Natural Products from Bacillus velezensis by Genome Mining, Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 2023 Jun | journal-article. doi: 10.1128/aem.00338-23.
A Novel Pathway for Biosynthesis of the Herbicidal Phosphonate Natural Product Phosphonothrixin Is Widespread in Actinobacteria, Journal of Bacteriology. 2023 May | journal-article. doi: 10.1128/jb.00485-22.
The genome of Bacillus tequilensis EA-CB0015 sheds light into its epiphytic lifestyle and potential as a biocontrol agent., Frontiers in microbiology. 2023 Mar | journal-article. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1135487.
Biosynthesis of Argolaphos Illuminates the Unusual Biochemical Origins of Aminomethylphosphonate and Nε-Hydroxyarginine Containing Natural Products, Journal of the American Chemical Society. 2022 Jun | journal-article. doi: 10.1021/jacs.2c00627.
Valinophos Reveals a New Route in Microbial Phosphonate Biosynthesis That Is Broadly Conserved in Nature, Journal of the American Chemical Society. 2022 Jun | journal-article. doi: 10.1021/jacs.2c02854.
Convergent and divergent biosynthetic strategies towards phosphonic acid natural products, Current Opinion in Chemical Biology. 2022 Jan | journal-article. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2022.102214.
Genome Mining and Metabolomics Uncover a Rare d-Capreomycidine Containing Natural Product and Its Biosynthetic Gene Cluster, ACS Chemical Biology. 2020 Nov | journal-article. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.0c00663.
Genome Mining Reveals the Phosphonoalamide Natural Products and a New Route in Phosphonic Acid Biosynthesis, ACS Chemical Biology. 2020 Jul | journal-article. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.0c00256.
Fosmidomycin biosynthesis diverges from related phosphonate natural products, Nature Chemical Biology. 2019 Nov | journal-article. doi: 10.1038/s41589-019-0343-1.
Ent-homocyclopiamine B, a Prenylated Indole Alkaloid of Biogenetic Interest from the Endophytic Fungus Penicillium concentricum, Molecules. 2019 Jan | journal-article. doi: 10.3390/molecules24020218.
Discovery of the Tyrobetaine Natural Products and Their Biosynthetic Gene Cluster via Metabologenomics, ACS Chemical Biology. 2018 Apr | journal-article. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.7b01089.
PcxL and HpxL are flavin-dependent, oxime-forming N-oxidases in phosphonocystoximic acid biosynthesis inStreptomyces, Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2018 Mar | journal-article. doi: 10.1074/jbc.ra118.001721.
New Kid on the Block: LmbU Expands the Repertoire of Specialized Metabolic Regulators in Streptomyces, Journal of Bacteriology. 2018 Jan | journal-article. doi: 10.1128/JB.00559-17.
Structural basis for methylphosphonate biosynthesis, Science. 2017 Dec | journal-article. doi: 10.1126/science.aao3435.
Discovery of a Phosphonoacetic Acid Derived Natural Product by Pathway Refactoring., . 2017 Jan | journal-article. doi: 10.1021/acssynbio.6b00299.
Elucidating the Rimosamide-Detoxin Natural Product Families and Their Biosynthesis Using Metabolite/Gene Cluster Correlations., . 2016 Dec | journal-article. .
Metabolomic data suggest regulation of black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra) diet composition at the molecular level., . 2016 Dec | journal-article. doi: 10.1002/ajp.22616.
Phylogenetic relationships in the family Streptomycetaceae using multi-locus sequence analysis., . 2016 Dec | journal-article. doi: 10.1007/s10482-016-0824-0.
Taxonomic evaluation of species in the Streptomyces hirsutus clade using multi-locus sequence analysis and proposals to reclassify several species in this clade., . 2016 Jun | journal-article. doi: 10.1099/ijsem.0.001017.
Metabologenomics: Correlation of Microbial Gene Clusters with Metabolites Drives Discovery of a Nonribosomal Peptide with an Unusual Amino Acid Monomer., . 2016 Feb | journal-article. doi: 10.1021/acscentsci.5b00331.
Discovery of phosphonic acid natural products by mining the genomes of 10,000 actinomycetes., . 2015 Sep | journal-article. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1500873112.
Selection for growth on 3-nitrotoluene by 2-nitrotoluene-utilizing Acidovorax sp. strain JS42 identifies nitroarene dioxygenases with altered specificities., . 2015 Jan | journal-article. doi: 10.1128/aem.02772-14.
A roadmap for natural product discovery based on large-scale genomics and metabolomics., . 2014 Nov | journal-article. doi: 10.1038/nchembio.1659.
Taxonomic evaluation of Streptomyces albus and related species using multilocus sequence analysis and proposals to emend the description of Streptomyces albus and describe Streptomyces pathocidini sp. nov., . 2014 Mar | journal-article. doi: 10.1099/ijs.0.058107-0.
Cyanohydrin phosphonate natural product from Streptomyces regensis., . 2014 Feb | journal-article. doi: 10.1021/np400722m.
Genomics-enabled discovery of phosphonate natural products and their biosynthetic pathways., . 2014 Feb | journal-article. doi: 10.1007/s10295-013-1375-2.
Use of a phosphonate methyltransferase in the identification of the fosfazinomycin biosynthetic gene cluster., . 2014 Jan | journal-article. doi: 10.1002/anie.201308363.
Discovery of the antibiotic phosacetamycin via a new mass spectrometry-based method for phosphonic acid detection., . 2013 May | journal-article. doi: 10.1021/cb400102t.
Different biosynthetic pathways to fosfomycin in Pseudomonas syringae and Streptomyces species., . 2012 Aug | journal-article. doi: 10.1128/aac.06478-11.
A proteomic survey of nonribosomal peptide and polyketide biosynthesis in actinobacteria., . 2012 Jan | journal-article. doi: 10.1021/pr2009115.
Genome sequences of three tunicamycin-producing Streptomyces Strains, S. chartreusis NRRL 12338, S. chartreusis NRRL 3882, and S. lysosuperificus ATCC 31396., . 2011 Dec | journal-article. doi: 10.1128/jb.06262-11.
Evolution of a new bacterial pathway for 4-nitrotoluene degradation., . 2011 Oct | journal-article. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2011.07817.x.
Nitroaromatic compounds, from synthesis to biodegradation., . 2010 Jun | journal-article. doi: 10.1128/mmbr.00006-10.
Mutation of bacterium Vibrio gazogenes for selective preparation of colorants., . 2010 Jan | journal-article. doi: 10.1002/btpr.346.
Reconstructing the evolutionary history of nitrotoluene detection in the transcriptional regulator NtdR., . 2009 Nov | journal-article. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2009.06904.x.
Application of nitroarene dioxygenases in the design of novel strains that degrade chloronitrobenzenes., . 2009 Mar | journal-article. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-7915.2008.00083.x.
Antibacterial colorants: characterization of prodiginines and their applications on textile materials., . 2008 Jan | journal-article. doi: 10.1021/bp070481r.
Control of substrate specificity by active-site residues in nitrobenzene dioxygenase., . 2006 Mar | journal-article. doi: 10.1128/aem.72.3.1817-1824.2006.