About Michael Fischbach's Work
Small molecules from microbes are used widely in the clinic as antibiotics, anticancer agents, immunosuppressants, and cholesterol-lowering drugs. Our lab focuses on three emerging principles that are changing our understanding of which microbes make natural products, what roles they play in the biology of their producers, and how best to discover them: 1. Small molecules from the human microbiota – we have recently found that bacteria from a surprisingly underexplored niche — the human body — are prolific producers of drug-like small molecules 2. Computational tools for small molecule discovery – we have developed a computational algorithm that identifies small-molecule-producing genes in bacterial genomes, our tools have begun to provide the first global view of the small molecules produced by bacteria. 3. Using synthetic ecology to control microbiome metabolism – we are engineering gut and skin bacterial species to produce new molecules, and constructing synthetic communities whose molecular output is completely specified.
Awards and Achievements
NIH Director's New Innovator Award
Medical Research Award from the W.M. Keck Foundation
Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease award
NIH Director's Pioneer Award
HHMI-Simons Faculty Scholars Award
In the News
Mining for Antibiotics, Right Under Our Noses
The New York Times
Humanity’s bacterial companions are a good place to look for new drugs
The Economist