Sheryl Tsai Lab UCI

Polyketide intermediates are very reactive and cannot be isolated. Our lab uses atom replacement strategies to synthesize small molecule mimics of biosynthetic intermediates in order to better understand how enzymes handle highly reactive polyketides.

Fatty acids in E. coli are made by a set of enzymes called a type II fatty acid synthase. We utilize mechanism based crosslinking approaches to trap fatty acid biosynthesis in action and solve complex crystal structures.

Polyketides are a diverse class of natural products that possess a large assortment of biological activities and are used to treat many diseases. We utilize X-ray crystallography and structural analysis in parallel with biosynthesis, chemical biology, and computational biology to aid in our understanding of PKS enzyme machinery.

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Lab News

Gabe defended his thesis and is staying on as a postdoc in the Tsai Lab to continue research on PKS structural enzymology.

Congrats to Dr. Alex White who recently defended his dissertation! Dr White will soon join the lab of David Nicewicz at UNC Chapel Hill as a post doc.

Congrats to Hau on continuing his bright research career in the Program of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering at UC Santa Cruz!

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Meet our PI

Meet our Lab Members

Read our publications

Deepening our understanding of the structural enzymology of natural product biosynthesis

TSAI LAB

The

Synthesis of Polyketide Analogues

Fatty Acid Biosynthesis

Polyketide Biosynthesis

Lab News

Congrats Dr. Moreno!

Alex White's dissertation defense

Hau starts grad school!