Presentations of Undergraduate Students Projects and Results during the 30th SIICUSP
Recently the undergraduate students developing research projects in our group presented their projects and results during the SIICUSP annual meeting (Simpósio Internacional de Iniciação Científica e Tecnológica da USP – International Symposium of Technological and Scientific Initiation of the Universidade de São Paulo), between November 30th and December 1st, 2022. All presentations were in Portuguese, and consisted of a poster presentation and of a short talk.
The student Laura Amadeu Paulino presented the work “Bioactive Metabolites
Produced by an Endophytic Actinobacteria Isolated from Anthurium urvilleanum from Alcatrazes Island“. It consisted of an extensive isolation work from ca. 70 L of culture media produced by an actinobacterium. The main compound is still under structure analysis, as a strongly conjugated metabolite presenting absorption above 400 nm, in the visible absorption window. The genome of the bacterium strain was also analyzed in order to gather information on the possible gene cluster coding for the biosynthesis of the compound isolated.
The student Cauê Arantes Wagner Zuccarino presented the work “Screening of Secondary Metabolites from Marine Sponges Collected at the Southern Coastline of Bahia State“. His work started by the collection of seven sponge species by the team of Professor Eduardo Hajdu, at the beginning of this year. Cauê prepared and fractionated the extracts from these sponges, leading to a series of fractions which were analyzed by HPLC-UV-MS and in several bioassays. Many of the fractions presented nitrogenous metabolites which also displayed anti-Plasmodial activity against Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite causative of malaria disease.
Gabriel Cóscia Junqueira presented the work entitled “Discovery of Bioactive Fungal Metabolites“. Gabriel’s work focuses the isolation of water-soluble metabolites from a biologically active extract from the culture media of a yet unidentified fungal strain. Gabriel’s work involved a series of separations of water-soluble fractions, which led to a major fraction presenting several interesting metabolites. He is currently performing the HPLC separations towards the next step: the identification of pure compounds, before analysis in different bioassays.
The student Beatriz Gabrieli Sampaio presented the work titled “Semi-Synthesis of Heteroaromatic Derivatives of (-)-Palitatin for Obtaining Bioactive Analogues“. Palitantin is a long-term known metabolite, first isolated by Penicillium palitans in the 1930’s. We found a strain that produces large amounts of (-)-palitantin. Beatriz is developing a project together with a MSc student, Pedro Martins Santucci, towards the preparation of several derivatives of (-)-palitantin for further evaluation in different bioassays.
The student Matheus Gotha presented his work entitled “Isolation and Identification of Hydrophilic Bioactive Peptaibols Produced by the Fungus Hypocrea sp.“. We found that Hypocrea sp. is a producer of a wide variety of peptaibol peptides. Fractions obtained during the fractionation of the extract of growth media displayed potent bioactivity in different bioassays. Matheus is moving towards the end of the isolation and identification process, with some very interesting results.
The projects of all students have been funded by the São Paulo State Funding Agency FAPESP, and supported by the Universidade de São Paulo. We thank the organizers of the 30th SIICUSP for the effort and hardwork to prepare a very nice and stimulating meeting for undergraduate students.