Achievement

Production and screening of compound libraries resulted in identification of agonists of ABA, a vital regulate of plant growth and stress responses. Fellow Defries (biologist), under the direction of Cutler (biologist), identified new ABA agonists using ABA-responsive yeast strains and a new high-density high-throughput screening methodology Defries developed. The compounds screened were produced through collaboration between Cutler and Pirrung (organic chemist). By use of acetylene plus azide-based 'click chemistry', 12,000 fluorescently-affinity tagged molecules were synthesized using a combinatorial approach. These new compounds were contributed to the ChemGen IGERT/CEPCEB library of over 60,000 potentially bioactive molecules. IGERT fellows, other UCR researchers, and collaborators from other institutions screen these compounds. The active compounds identified by IGERT fellows have resulted in patent applications, with the fellows as co-inventors.