Search for a Presentation
A01 - Biosynthesis of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine derivatives using diverse decarboxylases
The focus of our project is to use synthetic biology technology to enable the production of psychedelic-inspired drug candidates.
A01 - Biosynthesis of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine derivatives using diverse decarboxylases
Mentor(s): Andrew Jones, Ph.D.
The focus of our project is to use synthetic biology technology to enable the production of psychedelic-inspired drug candidates. This project focuses on screening a series of substrates against two different biosynthetic pathways to determine which will produce the highest amount of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) derivatives. DMT is a psychedelic that is currently being studied for its benefits in treating people who have anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, and other mental health disorders. To obtain these derivatives, we start with an expression strain of Escherichia coli, BL21starTM(DE3), expressing the biosynthetic pathway of interest. We then introduce our substituted indole into the culture media. The tryptophan synthase and decarboxylase sequentially convert the substrate into a substituted tryptamine. This substituted tryptamine is then methylated twice to produce the DMT derivative. To conclude which pathway produced the highest amount of each DMT derivative, we analyzed our final culture media using high performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS). Through our analysis, we were able to find one indole which was able to process through the full pathway to produce 6-formyl-DMT, and four indoles that produced tryptophan and tryptamine derivatives (4-Chloro, 5-Chloro, 5-Iodo, and 5-Cyano).