This action funds an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY2003. The goal of the fellowship is to increase the participation of minority scientists at the postdoctoral level and to prepare them for positions of scientific leadership in academia and industry. To attain this goal, the fellowship provides opportunities for postdoctoral training and research of the highest quality to recent doctoral recipients. It is expected that Fellows supported through these fellowships will play important roles in training of the future workforce.
The research and training plan is entitled "Engineering E. coli to produce bioactive polyketides." The aim of this project is to produce a bioactive macrolide in a polyketide producing E. coli by incorporating a deoxysugar biosynthesis pathway. The strain will produce desosamine, a deoxysugar often required for polyketide biological activity, transfer the glycoside to a polyketide core, and express macrolide resistance mechanisms. This system will facilitate the production of novel bio-active polyketides and allow the investigation of polyketide synthase mechanisms.
