Plant metabolites: Isolation, synthesis and bioactivity

Our group uses integrated approaches to study and valorize secondary metabolites isolated from plants. We develop transversal competencies from natural product isolation and identification to organic synthesis with four main complementary and interdependent goals:

  • Studying the chemical diversity of tropical plants
  • Isolating new bioactive molecules
  • Improving their activities by the development of medicinal chemistry research programs
  • Studying their mechanism of action

Advances in technology allow our group to conduct innovative research to meet some major public health challenges. We take advantage of modern tools to help analyze complex mixtures, like the molecular networking mass spectrometry-based methodology or NMR spectroscopy, that appear to be fast and efficient tools when it comes to exploring plant metabolomes. Molecules isolated in the laboratory give rise to bio-inspired total synthesis projects or medicinal chemistry projects based on late-stage functionalization. Together with many partners, both internal and external to ICSN, we evaluate the therapeutic interest of our molecules and explore their mechanism of action. The main areas of research currently developed in the laboratory focus on the discovery of new antitumor agents and original anti-infectives.