Elizabeth Skellam

Chemistry
Assistant Professor

Elizabeth.Skellam@unt.edu

Elizabeth Skellam

Elizabeth Skellam obtained her MChem in Chemistry from the University of Wales Swansea, UK. She then moved to the University of Bristol, UK, and received a PhD in Chemistry after studying natural products biosynthesis in fungi, focused on how multifunctional enzymes synthesize complex metabolites using simple building blocks. Following her doctoral studies Dr. Skellam received a MARBIONC Business of Biotechnology fellowship and moved to the University of North Carolina Wilmington as a Visiting Research Assistant Professor in 2011. There she was involved in genome mining and metabolic engineering of marine actinobacteria and cyanobacteria. In parallel she earned a second Master's degree, in Business Administration (MBA), directly related to the commercialization of natural products' research. In 2014 she moved to Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, accepting a permanent appointment in 2015, and began to build her independent research profile. Dr. Skellam joined Department of Chemistry and the BioDiscovery at UNT in Fall 2020. Her lab focuses on natural product biosynthetic pathway elucidation and engineering to generate and develop novel biocatalysts and bioactive molecules with potential use for the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, food, and cosmetic industries.

Faculty & Staff Spotlight: Elizabeth Skellam, UNT

CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Discovering and elucidating novel molecules, complex secondary metabolite pathways, and unusual biosynthetic enzymes from microorganisms using chemical and biological methods
  • Developing heterologous expression systems to overcome low titres and to combine biosynthetic pathways for the production of unnatural natural products
  • Enzyme engineering to rapidly generate small libraries of bioactive small molecules with commercial applications

FOR PROSPECTIVE GRADUATE STUDENTS

Apply to the Graduate Program in Chemistry

CURRENT GRANT-FUNDED PROJECTS

  • Keck Foundation Skellam (PI), Chapman, Carroll, Alonso (Co-PIs) 01/01/2023 - 12/31/2025 "Developing plants as new production platforms for pharmaceuticals"
  • NSF-CBET #2048347 Skellam (PI) 3/1/2021 - 2/28/2024 "Developing a Biomanufacturing Platform for the Site-Selective Functionalization and Structural Diversification of Cytochalasan-Based Carbon Skeletons", National Science Foundation

RECENT SIGNIFICANT PUBLICATIONS

  1. Skellam E* (2022), "Subcellular localization of fungal specialized metabolites, Fungal Biology and Biotechnology, 9, 11. *invited review*
  2. Skellam E (2022), "Biosynthesis of fungal polyketides by collaborating and trans-acting enzymes", Natural Product Reports, 39, 754-783. *invited review*
  3. Kahlert L, Villanueva M, Cox RJ*, Skellam EJ* (2021), "Biosynthesis of 6-hydroxymellein requires a collaborating polyketide synthase-like enzyme", Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60,11423-11429.
  4. Feng J, Hauser M, Cox RJ*, Skellam E* (2021) "Engineering Aspergillus oryzae for the Heterologous Expression of a Bacterial Modular Polyketide Synthase", J. Fungi, 7, 1085.
  5. Kahlert L, Bassiony E, Cox RJ and Skellam E* (2020), "Diels-Alder reactions during the biosynthesis of sorbicillinoids", Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 59, 5816 - 5822. *Highlighted in "Hot off the Press", Nat. Prod. Rep., 2020, 37, 747-751*
  6. Zhang H, Hantke V, Bruhnke P, Skellam E,* Cox RJ (2020), "Chemical and Genetic Studies on the Formation of Pyrrolones During the Biosynthesis of Cytochalasans", Chem. Eur. J., 27, 3106-3133.
  7. Kahlert L, Cox RJ, Skellam E* (2020), "The Same but Different: Multiple Functions of the Fungal Flavin Dependent Monooxygenase SorD from Penicillium chrysogenum", Chem. Commun., 56, 10934 - 10937.
  8. Wang C, Becker K, Pfuetze S, Kuhnert E, Stadler M, Cox RJ and Skellam E*(2019) "Investigating the Function of Cryptic Cytochalasan Cytochrome P450 Monooxygenases Using Combinatorial Biosynthesis", Org. Lett., 21, 21, 8756-8760
  9. Wang C, Hantke V, Cox RJ and Skellam E* (2019), "Targeted gene inactivations expose silent cytochalasans in Magnaporthe grisea NI980", Org. Lett., 21, 11, 4163-4167. *Highlighted in "Hot off the Press", Nat. Prod. Rep., 2019, 36, 1039-1043*
  10. Skellam E* (2019), "Strategies for engineering natural product biosynthesis in fungi", Trends in Biotechnology, 37, 416-427. *Featured Front Page Article* *invited review*