Balskus Lab

Selected Publications / 2019 – Present

115. Dong, Xueyang; Bae, Minwoo; Le, Chi; Aguilar Ramos, Miguel A.; Balskus, Emily P. “Enantiocomplementary Gut Bacterial Enzymes Metabolize Dietary Polyphenols” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.4c09892

114. Kountz, Duncan J.; Yu, Ruocheng; Lee, Jessie H.; Maloney, Katherine N.; Balskus, Emily P. “Flavoaffinins, elusive cellulose-binding natural products from an anaerobic bacterium” bioRxiv 2025, preprint bioRxiv: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.02.08.637243

113. Bae, Minwoo; Dong, Xueyang; Avila-Pacheco, Julian; Inyama, Fechi; Hill-Maini, Vayu; Clish, Clary & Balskus, Emily P. “Distinct Classes of Gut Bacterial Molybdenum-Dependent Enzymes Produce Urolithins” bioRxiv 2025, preprint

bioRxiv: doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.17.632430

112. Richards-Corke, Khyle C.; Jiang, Yindi; Yeliseyev, Vladimir; Zhang, Yancong; Franzosa, Eric A.; Wang, Zhipeng A.; Yapa Abeywardana, Maheeshi; Cole, Phillip A.; Huttenhower, Curtis; Bry, Lynn, & Balskus, Emily P. “A Small-Molecule Inhibitor of Gut Bacterial Urease Protects the Host from Liver Injury.” ACS Chemical Biology 2025 doi.org/10.1021/acschembio.3c00556

111. Wong, Joel W. H., & Balskus, Emily P. “Small molecules as modulators of phage–bacteria interactions.” Current Opinion in Chemical Biology 2025, 84, 102566. doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2024.102566

110. Alkhalaf, Lona M., Arrowsmith, Cheryl, Balskus, Emily P., Bergamini, Giovanna, Bhandari, Rashna, Chang, Christopher J., Chen, Peng, Chen, Xing, Ciulli, Alessio, Cricco, Julia A., Davis, Benjamin G., Delbianco, Martina, Dudareva, Natalia, Dueber, Erin, Ferguson, Fleur, de Giuseppe, Priscila Oliveira, Hamachi, Itaru, Hammond, Ming Chen, Hatzios, Stavroula K., … Winter, Georg. “Thoughts for the future.” Nature Chemical Biology 2025, 21(1), 6–15. doi.org/10.1038/s41589-024-01802-2

109. Bae, Minwoo; Le, Chi (Chip); Mehta, Raaj S.; Dong, Xueyang; Pieper, Lindsey M.; Ramirez, Lorenzo; Alexander, Margaret; Kiamehr, Sina; Turnbaugh, Peter J.; Huttenhower, Curtis; Chan, Andrew T.; Balskus, Emily P. “Metatranscriptomics-guided discovery and characterization of a polyphenol-metabolizing gut microbial enzyme.” Cell Host & Microbe 2024, 32, 1–10. doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2024.10.002

108. Woo, Amelia Y. M., Sandoval–Espinola, Walter J., Bollenbach, Maud, Wong, Alison, Sakanaka–Yokoyama, Mariko, Zhang, Qijun, Nieto, Vincent, Rey, Federico E., & Balskus, Emily P. "Phenotypic high-throughput screening identifies modulators of gut microbial choline metabolism" bioRxiv 2024, preprint

bioRxiv: doi.org/10.1101/2024.11.08.621386

107. Fu, Beverly; Yang, Hao; Kountz, Duncan J.; Lundahl, Maike N.; Beller, Harry R.; Broderick, William E.; Broderick, Joan B.; Hoffman, Brian H.; Balskus, Emily P. “Discovery of a new class of aminoacyl radical enzymes expands nature’s known radical chemistry.” Journal of the American Chemical Society 2024. doi.org/10.1021/jacs.4c10348

106. Mandarino Alves, Amanda; Lecchi, Chiara; Lopez, Sharon; Stornetta, Alessia; Mathai, Prince P.; Villalta, Peter W.; Ishii, Satoshi; Balskus, Emily P.; Balbo, Silvia; Khoruts, Alexander. “Dysfunctional mucus structure in cystic fibrosis increases vulnerability to colibactin-mediated DNA adducts in the colon mucosa” Gut Microbes 2024 6:1, 2387877. doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2024.2387877

105. McCurry, Megan D.; D'Agostino, Gabriel D.; Walsh, Jasmine T.; Bisanz, Jordan E.; Zalosnik, Ines; Dong, Xueyang; Morris, David J.; Korzenik, Joshua R.; Edlow, Andrea G.; Balskus, Emily P.; Turnbaugh, Peter J.; Huh, Jun R.; Devlin, A. Sloan. “Gut bacteria convert glucocorticoids into progestins in the presence of hydrogen gas” Cell 2024, 187, 12, 2952-2968.e13. doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2024.05.005
 

104. Bao, Bin; Wang, Youyuan; Boudreau, Paul; Song, Xinyang; Wu, Meng; Chen, Xi; Patik, Izabel; Tang, Ying; Ouahed, Jodie; Ringel, Amit; Barends, Jared; Wu, Chuan; Balskus, Emily P.; Thiagarajah, Jay; Liu, Jian; Wessels, Michael R.; Lencer, Wayne; Kasper, Dennis L.; An, Dingding; Horwitz, Bruce; Snapper, Scott B. “Bacterial Sphingolipids Exacerbate Colitis by Inhibiting ILC3-derived IL-22 Production” Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2024, 18, 2, 101350. doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmgh.2024.04.007

103. Li, Chenhao; Stražar, Martin; Mohamed, Ahmed M.T.; Pacheco, Julian A.; Walker, Rebecca L.; Lebar, Tina; Zhao, Shijie; Lockart, Julia; Dame, Andrea; Thurimella, Kumar; Jeanfavre, Sarah; Brown, Eric M.; Yan Ang, Qi; Berdy, Brittany; Sergio, Dallis; Invernizzi, Rachele; Tinoco, Antonio; Pishchany, Gleb; Vasan, Ramachandran S.; Balskus, Emily P.; Huttenhower, Curtis; Vlamakis, Hera; Clish, Clary; Shaw, Stanley Y.; Plichta, Damian R.; Xavier, Ramnik J. "Gut microbiome and metabolome profiling in Framingham heart study reveals cholesterol-metabolizing bacteria" Cell 2024, 187, 8, 1834-1852.e19. doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2024.03.014

102. Wong, Derek A.; Cabezas, Maria D.; Daniel-Ivad, Martin; Prasanna, Deepali V.; Fernandez, Regina; Nicol, Robert; Balskus, Emily P.; Karim, Ashty S.; Jewett, Michael C. “A cell-free workflow for detecting and characterizing RiPP recognition element-precursor peptide interactions” bioRxiv 2024, preprint.

bioRxiv: doi.org/10.1101/2024.03.25.586624

101. Altshuller, Maria; He, Xu; MacKrell, Elliot J.; Wernke, Kevin M.; Wong, Joel W.H.; Sellés-Baiget, Selene; Wang, Ting-Yu; Chou, Tsui-Fen; Duxin, Julien P.; Balskus, Emily P.; Herzon, Seth B.; Semlow, Daniel. “The Fanconi anemia pathway repairs colibactin-induced DNA interstrand cross-links” bioRxiv 2024, preprint.

bioRxiv: doi.org/10.1101/2024.01.30.576698

100. Crooke, Anne Marie; Chand, Anika K.; Cui, Zheng; Balskus, Emily P. “Elucidation of chalkophomycin biosynthesis reveals N-hydroxypyrrole-forming enzymes” Journal of the American Chemical Society 2024, 146, 23, 16268–16280. doi.org/10.1021/jacs.4c04712

99. Glasser, Nathaniel R.; Cui, Dongtao; Risser, Douglas D.; Okafor, C. Denise; Balskus, Emily P. “Accelerating the discovery of alkyl halide-derived natural products using halide depletion”. Nature Chemistry 2024, 16, 173–182. doi.org/10.1038/s41557-023-01390-z

98. Pelayo, Paula; Hussain, Fatima A.; Werlang, Caroline A.; Wu, Chloe; Woolston, Benjamin M.; Xiang, Claire M.; Rutt, Lindsay; France, Michael T.;Ravel, Jacques; Ribbeck, Katharina; Kwon, Douglas S.; Balskus, Emily P. “Prevotella are major contributors of sialidases in the human vaginal microbiome” PNAS 2024, 121 (36) e2400341121. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.240034112

bioRxiv: doi.org/10.1101/2024.01.09.574895

97. Segui Perez, Celia; De Jongh, Rivka; Jonkergouw, Robin; Pelayo, Paula; Balskus, Emily P.; Zomer, Aldert; Strijbis, Karin. “Prevotella timonensis degrades the vaginal epithelial glycocalyx through high fucosidase and sialidase activities” mBio 2024, 15  (9)  e00691-24. doi.org/10.1128/mbio.00691-24

bioRxiv: doi.org/10.1101/2024.01.09.574844

96. Mayers, Jared R .; Varon, Jack; Zhou, Ruixuan R.; Daniel-Ivad, Martin; Beaulieu, Courtney; Bholse, Amrisha; Glasser, Nathaniel R.; Lichtenauer, Franziska M.; Ng, Julie; Pinilla Vera, Mayra; Huttenhower, Curtis; Perrella, Mark A.; Clish, Clary B.; Zhao, Sihai D.; Baron, Rebecca M.; Balskus, Emily P. “A metabolomics pipeline highlights microbial metabolism in bloodstream infections” Cell 2024, 187, 1–18. doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2024.05.035

bioRxiv: doi.org/10.1101/2023.09.21.558834

95. Nagashima, Kazuki; Zhao, Aishan; Atabakhsh, Katayoon; Bae, Minwoo; Blum, Jamie E.; Weakley, Allison; Jain, Sunit; Meng, Xiandong; Cheng, Alice G.; Wang, Min; Higginbottom, Steven; Dimas, Alex; Murugkar, Pallavi; Sattely, Elizabeth S.; Moon, James J.; Balskus, Emily P.; Fischbach, Michael A. “Mapping the T cell repertoire to a complex gut bacterial community” Nature 2023, 621, 162–170. doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06431-8

94. Kountz, Duncan J. and Balskus, Emily P. “A diversified, widespread microbial gene cluster encodes homologs of methyltransferases involved in methanogenesis” bioRxiv 2023, preprint.

bioRxiv: doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.31.551370

93. Mandelbaum, Noa; Zhang, Lihan; Carasso, Shaqed; Ziv, Tamar; Lifshiz-Simon, Sapir; Davidovich, Irina; Luz, Ishai; Berinstein, Elliot; Gefen, Tal; Cooks, Tomer; Talmon, Yeshayahu; Balskus, Emily P.; Geva-Zatorsky, Naama. “Extracellular vesicles of the Gram-positive gut symbiont Bifidobacterium longum induce immune-modulatory, anti-inflammatory effects” NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes 2023, 9, 30. doi.org/10.1038/s41522-023-00400-9

92. Van Cura, Devon; Ng, Tai L.; Huang, Jing; Hager, Harry; Hartwig, John F.; Keasling, Jay D.; Balskus, Emily P. “Discovery of the Azaserine Biosynthetic Pathway Uncovers a Biological Route for α-Diazoester Production” Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) 2023, 62 (28), e202304646 doi.org/10.1002/anie.202304646

91. Huang, Jing; Quest, Andrew; Cruz-Morales, Pablo; Deng, Kai; Pereira, Jose H.; Van Cura, Devon; Kakumanu, Ramu; Baidoo, Edward E. K.; Dan, Qingyun; Chen, Yan; Petzold, Christopher J.; Northen, Trent R.; Adams, Paul D.; Clark, Douglas S.; Balskus, Emily P.; Hartwig, John F.; Mukhopadhyay, Aindrila; Keasling, Jay D. “Complete integration of carbene-transfer chemistry into biosynthesis” Nature 2023, 617, 403–408 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06027-2

90. Woo, Amelia Y. M.; Aguilar Ramos, Miguel A.; Narayan, Rohan; Richards-Corke, Khyle C.; Wang, Michelle L.; Sandoval-Espinola, Walter J.; Balskus, Emily P. “Targeting the human gut microbiome with small-molecule inhibitors” Nature reviews Chemistry 2023, 7, 319–339. doi.org/10.1038/s41570-023-00471-4

89. Mehta, Raaj S.; Mayers, Jared R.; Zhang, Yancong; Bhosle, Amrisha; Glasser, Nathaniel R.; Nguyen, Long H.; Ma, Wenjie; Bae, Sena; Branck, Tobyn; Song, Kijun; Sebastian, Luke; Avila Pacheco, Julian; Seo, Hyuk-Soo; Clish, Clary; Dhe-Paganon, Sirano; Ananthakrishnan, Ashwin N.; Franzosa, Eric A.; Balskus, Emily P.; Chan, Andrew T.; Huttenhower, Curtis. “Gut microbial metabolism of 5-ASA diminishes its clinical efficacy in inflammatory bowel disease” Nature Medicine 2023, 29, 700–709. doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02217-7

88. Balskus Emily P. “Elucidating the Chemistry and Biology of the Human Microbiome” Biochemistry 2022, 61(24):2777-2778. doi:10.1021/acs.biochem.2c00652

87. Dong, Xueyang; Guthrie, Ben G. H.; Alexander, Margaret; Noecker, Cecilia; Ramirez, Lorenzo; Glasser, Nathaniel R.; Turnbaugh, Peter J.; Balskus, Emily P. “Genetic manipulation of the human gut bacterium Eggerthella lenta reveals a widespread family of transcriptional regulators” Nature Communications 2022, 13, 7624. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33576-3

86. Volpe, Matthew R.; Velilla, José A.; Daniel-Ivad, Martin; Yao, Jenny J.; Stornetta, Alessia; Villalta, Peter W.; Huang, Hsin-Che; Bachovchin, Daniel A.; Balbo, Silvia; Gaudet, Rachelle; Balskus, Emily P. “A small molecule inhibitor prevents gut bacterial genotoxin production” Nature Chemical Biology 2023, 19, 159–167. doi.org/10.1038/s41589-022-01147-8

85. Velilla, José A.; Vople, Matthew R.; Kenney, Grace E.; Walsh, Richard M.; Balskus, Emily P.; Gaudet, Rachelle “Structural basis of colibactin activation by the ClbP peptidase” Nature Chemical Biology 2023, 19, 151–158. doi.org/10.1038/s41589-022-01142-z

84. Le, Chip*; Bae, Minwoo*; Kiamehr, Sina; Balskus, Emily P. “Emerging Chemical Diversity and Potential Applications of Enzymes in the DMSO Reductase Superfamily” Annual Review of Biochemistry 2022, 91, 475–504 doi.org/10.1146/annurev-biochem-032620-110804

83. Fu, Beverly; Nazemi, Azadeh; Levin, Benjamin J.; Yang, Zhongyue; Kulik, Heather J.; Balskus, Emily P. “Mechanistic Studies of a Skatole-Forming Glycyl Radical Enzyme Suggest Reaction Initiation via Hydrogen Atom Transfer” Journal of the American Chemical Society 2022, 144, 11110–11119. doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c13580

82. Reed, Amber D.; Fletcher, Joshua R.; Huang, Yolanda Y.; Thanissery, Rajani; Rivera, Alissa J.; Parsons, Ruth J.; Stewart, Allison K.; Kountz, Duncan J.; Shen, Aimee; Balskus, Emily P.; Theriot, Casey M. “The Stickland Reaction Precursor trans-4-Hydroxy-l-Proline Differentially Impacts the Metabolism of Clostridioides difficile and Commensal Clostridia” mSphere 2022, 7(2), e0092621. doi.org/10.1128/msphere.00926-21

81. Martins, Teresa P.; Glasser, Nathaniel R.; Kountz, Duncan J.; Oliveira, Paulo; Balskus, Emily P.; Leão, Pedro N. “Biosynthesis of the unusual carbon skeleton of nocuolin A” ACS Chemical Biology 2022, 17, 2528–2537. doi.org/10.1021/acschembio.2c00464

chemRxiv: doi:10.26434/chemrxiv-2022-jv5n7

80. Bloom, Seth M.; Mafunda, Nomfuneko A.; Woolston, Benjamin M.; Hayward, Matthew R.; Frempong, Josephine F.; Abai, Aaron B.; Xu, Jiawu; Mitchell, Alissa J.; Westergaard, Xavier; Hussain, Fatima A.; Xulu, Nondumiso; Dong, Mary; Dong, Krista L.; Gumbi, Thandeka; Ceasar, F. Xolisile; Rice, Justin K.; Choksi, Namit; Ismail, Nasreen; Ndung’u, Thumbi; Ghebremichael, Musie S.; Relman, David A.; Balskus, Emily P.; Mitchell, Caroline M.; Kwon, Douglas S. “Cysteine dependence of Lactobacillus iners is a potential therapeutic target for vaginal microbiota modulation” Nature Microbiology 2022, 7, 434–450. doi:10.1038/s41564-022-01070-7

79. Braffman, Nathaniel R.; Ruskoski, Terry B.; Davis, Katherine M.; Glasser, Nathaniel R.; Johnson, Cassidy; Okafor, C. Denise; Boal, Amie K.; Balskus, Emily P. “Structural basis for an unprecedented enzymatic alkylation in cylindrocyclophane biosynthesis” eLIFE 2022, 11, e75761. doi:10.7554/eLife.75761

78. Jenkins, Dominick J.; Woolston, Benjamin M.; Hood-Pishchany, M. Indriati; Pelayo, Paula; Konopaski, Alyssa N.; Peters, M. Quinn; France, Michael T.; Ravel, Jacques; Mitchell, Caroline M.; Rakoff-Nahoum, Seth; Whidbey, Christopher; Balskus, Emily P. “Bacterial amylases enable glycogen degradation by the vaginal microbiome” Nature microbiology 2023 8, 1641–1652. doi: 10.1038/s41564-023-01447-2

bioRxiv 2021 preprint: doi:10.1101/2021.07.19.452977

77. Kountz, Duncan J.; Balskus, Emily P. “Leveraging Microbial Genomes and Genomic Context for Chemical Discovery” Accounts of Chemical Research 2021, 54, 2788–2797. doi:10.1021/acs.accounts.1c00100

76. Silpe, Justin E.*; Wong, Joel W. H.*; Owen, Siân V.; Baym, Michael; Balskus, Emily P. “The bacterial toxin colibactin triggers prophage induction” Nature 2022, 603, 315–320. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04444-3

bioRxiv: doi:10.1101/2021.05.24.445430

75. Murray, Kevin J.; Carlson, Erik S.; Stornetta, Alessia; Balskus, Emily P.; Villalta, Peter W.; Balbo, Silvia “Extension of Diagnostic Fragmentation Filtering for Automated Discovery in DNA Adductomics” Analytical Chemistry 2021, 93, 5754–5762.
doi:10.1021/acs.analchem.0c04895

74. Dawson, Christopher D.*; Irwin, Stephania M.*; Backman, Lindsey R.F.; Le, Chip; Wang, Jennifer X.; Vennelakanti, Vyshnavi; Yang, Zhongyue; Kulik, Heather J.; Drennan, Catherine L.; Balskus, Emily P. “Molecular basis of C-S bond cleavage in the glycyl radical enzyme isethionate sulfite-lyase” Cell Chemical Biology 2021, 28 (9), P1333-1346
doi:10.1016/j.chembiol.2021.03.001

73. Rajakovich, Lauren J.; Fu, Beverly; Bollenbach, Maud; Balskus, Emily P. “Elucidation of an anaerobic pathway for metabolism of L-carnitine derived γ-butyrobetaine to trimethylamine in human gut bacteria” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2021, 118 (32), e2101498118. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101498118

72. McBride, Molly J.; Pope, Sarah R.; Hu, Kai; Okafor, C. Denise; Balskus, Emily P.; Bollinger, J. Martin, Jr.; Boal, Amie K. “Structure and assembly of the diiron cofactor in the heme-oxygenase–like domain of the N-nitrosourea–producing enzyme SznF” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2021, 118 (4), e2015931118. doi:10.1073/pnas.2015931118

71. Eusebio, Nadia; Rego, Adriana; Glasser, Nathaniel R.; Castelo-Branco, Raquel; Balskus, Emily P.; Leão, Pedro N. “Distribution and diversity of dimetal-carboxylate halogenases in cyanobacteria” BMC genomics 2021, 22, 633 doi.org/10.1186/s12864-021-07939-x

bioRxiv: doi:10.1101/2021.01.05.425448

70. Silpe, Justin E.; Balskus, Emily P. “Deciphering Human Microbiota–Host Chemical Interactions” ACS Central Science 2020, 7, 20–29. doi:10.1021/acscentsci.0c01030

69. Kenny, Douglas J.; Plichta, Damian R.; Shungin, Dmitry; Koppel, Nitzan; Hall, Brantley; Fu, Beverly; Vasan, Ramachandran S.; Shaw, Stanley Y.; Vlamakis, Hera; Balskus, Emily P.; Xavier, Ramnik J. “Cholesterol Metabolism by Uncultured Human Gut Bacteria Influences Host Cholesterol Level” Cell Host & Microbe 2020, 28, 245–257. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2020.05.013

68. McBride, Molly; Sil, Debangsu; Ng, Tai L.; Crooke, Anne Marie; Kenney, Grace E.; Tysoe, Christina R.; Zhang, Bo; Balskus, Emily P.; Boal, Amie K.; Krebs, Carsten; Bollinger, J. Martin, Jr. “A peroxodiiron(III) intermediate mediating both N-hydroxylation steps in biosynthesis of the N-nitrosourea pharmacophore of streptozotocin by SznF” Journal of the American Chemical Society 2020, 142, 11818–11828. doi:10.1021/jacs.0c03431

67. Fu, Beverly; Balskus, Emily P. “Discovery of C–C bond-forming and bond-breaking radical enzymes: enabling transformations for metabolic engineering” Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2020, 65, 94–101. doi:10.1016/j.copbio.2020.02.003

66. Bisanz, Jordan E.; Soto-Perez, Paola; Noecker, Cecilia; Aksenov, Alexander A.; Lam, Kathy N.; Kenney, Grace E.; Bess, Elizabeth N.; Haiser, Henry J.; Kyaw, Than S.; Yu, Feiqiao B.; Rekdal, Vayu M.; Ha, Connie W.Y.; Devkota, Suzanne; Balskus, Emily P.; Dorrestein, Pieter C.; Allen-Vercoe, Emma; Turnbaugh, Peter J. “A Genomic Toolkit for the Mechanistic Dissection of Intractable Human Gut Bacteria” Cell Host & Microbe 2020, 27, 1001–1013. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2020.04.006

65. Bollenbach, Maud; Ortega, Manuel; Orman, Marina; Drennan, Catherine L.; Balskus, Emily P. “Discovery of a Cyclic Choline Analog That Inhibits Anaerobic Choline Metabolism by Human Gut Bacteria” ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2020, 11, 1980–1985. doi:10.1021/acsmedchemlett.0c00005

64. Backman, Lindsey R.F.*; Huang, Yolanda Y.*; Andorfer, Mary C.; Gold, Brian; Raines, Ronald T.; Balskus, Emily P.; Drennan, Catherine L. “Molecular basis for catabolism of the abundant metabolite trans-4-hydroxy-L-proline by a microbial glycyl radical enzyme” eLIFE 2020, 9, e51420. doi:10.7554/eLife.51420

63. Rekdal, Vayu Maini; Bernardino, Paola Nol; Luescher, Michael U.; Kiamehr, Sina; Le, Chip; Bisanz, Jordan E.; Turnbaugh, Peter J.; Bess, Elizabeth N.; Balskus, Emily P. “A widely distributed metalloenzyme class enables gut microbial metabolism of host- and diet-derived catechols” eLIFE 2020, 9, e50845. doi:10.7554/eLife.50845

bioRxiv: doi:10.1101/725358

62. Ng, Tai L.*; McCallum. Monica E.*; Zheng, Christine R.; Wang, Jennifer X.; Wu, Kelvin J. Y.; Balskus, Emily P. “The L‐Alanosine Gene Cluster Encodes a Pathway for Diazeniumdiolate Biosynthesis” ChemBioChem 2019, 20. doi:10.1002/cbic.201900565

bioRxiv: doi:10.1101/763607

61. Carlson, Erik S.; Balskus, Emily P. “The mysteries of macrocyclic colibactins” Nature Chemistry 2019, 11, 867–869. doi:10.1038/s41557-019-0339-1

60. Chen, Sifan; Henderson, Ayana; Petriello, Michael; Romano, Kymberleigh A.; Gearing, Mary; Miao, Ji; Schell, Mareike; Sandoval-Espinola, Walter J.; Tao, Jiahui; Sha, Bingdong; Graham, Mark; Crooke, Rosanne; Kleinridders, Andre; Balskus, Emily P.; Rey, Federico E.; Morris, Andrew; Biddinger, Sudha B. “Trimethylamine N-Oxide Binds and Activates PERK to Promote Metabolic Dysfunction” Cell Metabolism 2019, 30, 1141–1151. doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2019.08.021

59. Jiang, Yindi; Stornetta, Alessia; Villalta, Peter W.; Wilson, Matthew R.; Boudreau, Paul D.; Zha, Li; Balbo, Silvia; Balskus, Emily P. “Reactivity of an unusual amidase may explain colibactin’s DNA cross-linking activity” Journal of the American Chemical Society 2019, 141, 11489–11496. doi:10.1021/jacs.9b02453

bioRxiv: doi:10.1101/567248

58. Maini Rekdal, Vayu; Bess, Elizabeth N.; Bisanz, Jordan E.; Turnbaugh, Peter J.; Balskus, Emily P. “Discovery and inhibition of an interspecies gut bacterial pathway for Levodopa metabolism” Science 2019, 364, eaau6323. doi:10.1126/science.aau6323

57. Volpe, Matthew R.; Wilson, Matthew R.; Brotherton, Carolyn A.; Winter, Ethan S.; Johnson, Sheila E.; Balskus, Emily P. “In vitro characterization of the colibactin-activating peptidase ClbP enables development of a fluorogenic activity probe” ACS Chemical Biology 2019, 14, 1097–1101. doi:10.1021/acschembio.9b00069

bioRxiv: doi:10.1101/559385

56. Wilson, Matthew R.*; Jiang, Yindi*; Villalta, Peter W.; Stornetta, Alessia; Boudreau, Paul D.; Carrá, Andrea; Brennan, Caitlin A.; Chun, Eunyoung; Ngo, Lizzie; Samson, Leona D.; Engelward, Bevin P.; Garrett, Wendy S.; Balbo, Silvia; Balskus, Emily P. “The human gut bacterial genotoxin colibactin alkylates DNA” Science 2019, 363, eaar7785. doi:10.1126/science.aar7785

55. Ng, Tai L.; Rohac, Roman; Mitchell, Andrew J.; Boal, Amie K.; Balskus, Emily P. “An N-nitrosating metalloenzyme constructs the pharmacophore of streptozotocin” Nature 2019, 566, 94–99. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-0894-z

54. Schultz, Erica E.*; Braffman, Nathaniel R.*; Luescher, Michael U.; Hager, Harry H.; Balskus, Emily P. “Biocatalytic Friedel–Crafts Alkylation Using a Promiscuous Biosynthetic Enzyme” Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2019, 58, 3151–3155. doi:10.1002/anie.201814016

53. Peck, Spencer C.; Denger, Karin; Burrichter, Anna; Irwin, Stephania M.; Balskus, Emily P.; Schleheck, David “A glycyl radical enzyme enables hydrogen sulfide production by the human intestinal bacterium Bilophila wadsworthia” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2019, 116, 3171–3176. doi:10.1073/pnas.1815661116

52. Martins, Teresa P.; Rouger, Caroline; Glasser, Nathaniel R.; Freitas, Sara; de Fraissinette, Nelly B.; Balskus, Emily P.; Tasdemir, Deniz; Leão, Pedro N. “Chemistry, bioactivity and biosynthesis of cyanobacterial alkylresorcinols” Natural Product Reports 2019, 36, 1437–1461. doi:10.1039/C8NP00080H

51. Orman, Marina; Bodea, Smaranda; Funk, Michael A.; Martínez-del Campo, Ana; Bollenbach, Maud; Drennan, Catherine L.; Balskus, Emily P. “Structure-Guided Identification of a Small Molecule That Inhibits Anaerobic Choline Metabolism by Human Gut Bacteria” Journal of the American Chemical Society 2019, 141, 33–37. doi:10.1021/jacs.8b04883