Optimized NMR spectroscopy-based screening for bioactives from natural product libraries.

Nautilus Biosciences Canada is a Charlottetown-based marine biotechnology company. Its primary aim is thediscovery and development of bioactive agents from marine microbial sources. Applications for its bioactiveagents range from pharmaceuticals, to nutraceuticals to cosmeceuticals. As part of its discovery process,Nautilus builds libraries of active agents extracted from diverse microbial sources. Efficient methods ofscreening for potential beneficial bioactivity in multi-component libraries is of great interest for improvingthroughput and generation of leads for commercialization.Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has the potential to examine complex mixtures, such asNautilus' libraries, through its ability to distinguish signals corresponding to the individual atoms making upeach member of the library. Dr. Jan Rainey at Dalhousie University is an expert in NMR spectroscopy, withover 15 years of experience in this technique. As a follow-up to an NSERC Interaction Grant, Dr. Rainey isproposing to work with Nautilus to develop two new screening protocols.In the first protocol, a method to test for the ability of individual library components to behave in a soap-likemanner (more technically, as "surfactants") will be established by NMR spectroscopy. In the second, the abilityto use NMR to test for specific binding of individual components in a complex library to a desired cell surfaceprotein will be developed. Upon development and successful implementation, these protocols will allowNautilus to much more efficiently and effectively screen for bioactivity. Expected benefits are enhancedcompetitiveness through more rapid identification of promising agents.