Abstract

While the structures of a myriad of natural products have been elucidated from marine sponges, the biological targets for only a small percentage of these materials are known. Arguably, understanding the target of these compounds can be as essential to clinic entry as the structure. In an effort to expand the scope of affinity data, we developed a system that identifies protein targets in parallel with natural product isolation. Our study focused on evaluating sponge extracts for natural products that bind to Escherichia coli proteins as a model.