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Michael Fischbach

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Michael Andrew Fischbach (born November 3, 1980) is an American chemist, microbiologist, and geneticist. He is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco and a member of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences.[1]

Education

Fischbach earned his A.B. in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College in 2003. During that time (2000-2003), he worked in Jeffrey Settleman’s lab at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center on the biochemistry of oncogenic mutants of the small GTPase Ras.[2] He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard University (2007), working in Christopher T. Walsh’s laboratory at Harvard Medical School on iron acquisition in bacterial pathogens and the biochemistry of natural product biosynthesis.[3][4]

Career

Fischbach was a junior fellow in the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital (2007-2009) before joining the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco in 2009.

Fischbach is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Achaogen,[5] the scientific advisory boards of NGM Biopharmaceuticals[6] and Symbiota,[7] and a co-founder of Revolution Medicines.[8]

Research

Fischbach’s lab focuses on discovering and characterizing small molecules from microorganisms, with an emphasis on the human microbiome.[9][10]

Small molecules from the human microbiota

In 2014, Fischbach and his laboratory published a survey of biosynthetic genes in the human microbiome, describing the ability of human-associated microbes to produce thiopeptide antibiotics.[11] [12][13][14] The Fischbach lab discovered that the gut commensal Bacteroides fragilis produces the immune modulatory sphingolipid alpha-galactosylceramide,[15] showed that the production of neurotransmitters is common among commensal gut bacteria,[16] and discovered the biosynthetic pathway for a common class of bile acids produced by gut bacteria.[17]

Computational approaches to natural product discovery

Fischbach’s lab developed an algorithm, ClusterFinder, that automates the process of identifying biosynthetic genes for small molecules in bacterial genome sequences.[18][19] With Marnix Medema, he co-developed a second algorithm for identifying biosynthetic gene clusters, antiSMASH,[20] with which ClusterFinder has been merged.

Personal Life

Fischbach is married to Elizabeth Sattely, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford.[21]

References

  1. ^ UCSF Faculty Profile, Michael Fischbach
  2. ^ Fischbach MA, Settleman J. Specific biochemical inactivation of oncogenic Ras proteins by nucleoside diphosphate kinase. Cancer Res. 2003 Jul 15;63(14):4089-94. PubMed PMID: 12874011.
  3. ^ Fischbach MA, Lin H, Liu DR, Walsh CT. In vitro characterization of IroB, a pathogen-associated C-glycosyltransferase. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Jan 18;102(3):571-6. Epub 2004 Dec 14. PubMed PMID: 15598734; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC545562.
  4. ^ Walsh CT, Fischbach MA. Natural products version 2.0: connecting genes to molecules. J Am Chem Soc. 2010 Mar 3;132(8):2469-93. doi: 10.1021/ja909118a. PubMed PMID: 20121095; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2828520.
  5. ^ Achaogen Website, Directors
  6. ^ NGM Biopharmaceuticals Website, Scientific Advisory Board
  7. ^ Symbiota Website, Advisors
  8. ^ Revolution Medicines Website, Team
  9. ^ Fischbach Research Group Website
  10. ^ Donia MS, Fischbach MA. Small molecules from the human microbiota. Science. 2015 Jul 24;349(6246):1254766. doi: 10.1126/science.1254766. Epub 2015 Jul 23. Review. PubMed PMID: 26206939; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4641445
  11. ^ Donia MS, Cimermancic P, Schulze CJ, Wieland Brown LC, Martin J, Mitreva M, Clardy J, Linington RG, Fischbach MA. A systematic analysis of biosynthetic gene clusters in the human microbiome reveals a common family of antibiotics. Cell. 2014 Sep 11;158(6):1402-14. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2014.08.032. PubMed PMID: 25215495; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4164201.
  12. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/11/health/mining-for-antibiotics-right-under-our-noses.html, Mining for Antibiotics, Right Under Our Noses, Article in The New York Times
  13. ^ http://time.com/3341260/diy-drugs-antibiotics-could-soon-be-made-out-of-your-own-bacteria.html, DIY Drugs: Antibiotics Could Soon Be Made Out of Your Own Bacteria, Article in Time Magazine
  14. ^ http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21618674-humanitys-bacterial-companions-are-good-place-look-new-drugs-set, Humanity’s bacterial companions are a good place to look for new drugs, Article in The Economist
  15. ^ Wieland Brown LC, Penaranda C, Kashyap PC, Williams BB, Clardy J, Kronenberg M, Sonnenburg JL, Comstock LE, Bluestone JA, Fischbach MA. Production of α-galactosylceramide by a prominent member of the human gut microbiota. PLoS Biol. 2013 Jul;11(7):e1001610. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001610. Epub 2013 Jul 16. PubMed PMID: 23874157; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3712910.
  16. ^ Williams BB, Van Benschoten AH, Cimermancic P, Donia MS, Zimmermann M, Taketani M, Ishihara A, Kashyap PC, Fraser JS, Fischbach MA. Discovery and characterization of gut microbiota decarboxylases that can produce the neurotransmitter tryptamine. Cell Host Microbe. 2014 Oct 8;16(4):495-503. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2014.09.001. Epub 2014 Sep 25. PubMed PMID: 25263219; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4260654.
  17. ^ Devlin AS, Fischbach MA. A biosynthetic pathway for a prominent class of microbiota-derived bile acids. Nat Chem Biol. 2015 Sep;11(9):685-90. doi: 10.1038/nchembio.1864. Epub 2015 Jul 20. PubMed PMID: 26192599; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4543561.
  18. ^ Cimermancic P, Medema MH, Claesen J, Kurita K, Wieland Brown LC, Mavrommatis K, Pati A, Godfrey PA, Koehrsen M, Clardy J, Birren BW, Takano E, Sali A, Linington RG, Fischbach MA. Insights into secondary metabolism from a global analysis of prokaryotic biosynthetic gene clusters. Cell. 2014 Jul 17;158(2):412-21. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2014.06.034. PubMed PMID: 25036635; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4123684.
  19. ^ Medema MH, Fischbach MA. Computational approaches to natural product discovery. Nat Chem Biol. 2015 Sep;11(9):639-48. doi: 10.1038/nchembio.1884. PubMed PMID: 26284671.
  20. ^ antiSMASH Website
  21. ^ Stanford People, Elizabeth Sattely
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