Grants support natural product drug discovery

Ben Shen, professor in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Division, received grants from American Recovery Act Funds to support his ongoing program on natural product biosynthesis, engineering, and drug discovery.

A Competitive Revision grant will expand Shen’s current effort on biosynthesis and engineering of the enediynes, some of the most potent anticancer drugs ever known. A Challenge Grant, for which Shen is a co-investigator and Bruce Klein, UW School of Medicine and Public Health, is the principal investigator, will explore natural products from under-explored microorganisms as novel antifungal drugs and drug leads.