Introduction

Following the 2006 edition of the RSC's Directing Biosynthesis meeting, the subject area has broadened and matured, and the area of understanding and directing biosynthesis has become highly topical. 

Understanding of biosynthetic gene clusters in bacteria, fungi, plants and marine organisms has grown quickly since whole genome (and metagenome) sequencing efforts began in the early 2000s. The area is populated by chemists, geneticists, microbiologists, medicinal chemists, chemical engineers and many others. 

Understanding of protein structures, catalysis and selectivity have all improved to the extent that in some cases the likely chemical function of a biosynthetic gene cluster can be predicted from gene sequence alone. In other cases new and sometimes exotic types of biosynthetic transformations are coming to light, and there has been a broadening of the definitions of previously narrow areas such as 'polyketide biosynthesis' and 'terpene biosynthesis' so that much overlap is now evident. In particular, it is becoming more common for genetic pathways to be altered rationally or built from scratch (so called biosynthetic engineering) and biosynthetic pathways are being 'directed' with increasing frequency and success to create new compounds. 

Directing Biosynthesis 2010 featured the best of the worlds of terpene, alkaloid, non-ribosomal peptide and polyketide biosynthesis, with a focus on understanding and redirecting pathways in a wide variety of organisms.

Themes

The following themes were covered at the meeting:

• Discovery of new natural products and pathways (screening, genomics, mining, activation of cryptic pathways, metagenomics) 
• Biosynthesis and enzymology 
• Structural biology/directed evolution 
• Pathway engineering, semi-synthetic products and synthetic biology 
  

Co-sponsors

We are grateful for the co-sponsorship support of the following organisations.

Scientific Committee

Professor Russell Cox
University of Bristol, UK

Professor Greg Challis
University of Warwick, UK

Dr Steven Cobb
Durham University, UK

Professor Jason Micklefield
University of Manchester, UK

Professor Anne Osbourn
John Innes Centre, UK

Dr Barrie Wilkinson
Biotica, UK