Research

SAGE: High-Throughput Natural Product Screening

SAGE- Small molecule Analysis via Generated Emulsions - a cutting-edge microfluidic platform designed to democratize drug discovery. Disease-agnostic and fully adaptable, allowing screening for bioactive compounds across a wide range of targets. By minimizing reagent use, reducing cost, and scaling efficiently, SAGE opens the door to broader participation in early-stage therapeutic discovery. It accelerates the path from natural product to potential drug lead.

In-Situ Cultivations

We pursue in-situ cultivation to access the vast diversity of microbes that remain unculturable by traditional laboratory methods- often referred to as "microbial dark matter." By growing environmental microbes within their extremophilic conditions using specialized devices biofabricated in-house, we can more accurately replicate their natural habitats and ecological interactions. This approach dramatically increases our ability to isolate novel strains, many of which produce unique secondary metabolites with untapped therapeutic potential. In-situ cultivation is essential to expanding the microbial repertoire available for natural product discovery.

Silent Natural Product Elicitation

We use microfluidics to elicit silent natural product- bioactive compounds encoded in microbial genomes but not expressed under standard lab conditions. By precisely controlling microenvironmental factors such as co-culture conditions, nutrient gradients, and stress signals at the microscale, our platform mimics the ecological triggers that can activate these cryptic biosynthetic pathways in patients by discovering novel treatments and solutions

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