Publications

  1. Kyle, K.E.†; Puckett, S.P.†; Caraballo-Rodríguez, A.M.; Rivera-Chávez, J.; Samples, R.M.; Earp, C.E.; Raja, H.A.; Pearce, C.J.; Earnst, M.; van der Hooft, J.J.J.; Adams, M.E.; Oberlies, N.H.; Dorrestein, P.C.; Klassen, J.L.*; Balunas, M.J.* Trachymyrmex septentrionalis ants promote fungus garden hygiene using Trichoderma-derived metabolite cues. Preprint, https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.12.516288 †These authors contributed equally.
  2. Pasternak, A.R.O.; Balunas, M.J.; Zechel, D.L. Discovery of 3'-O-beta-glucosyltubercidin and the nucleoside specific glycosyltransferase AvpGT through genome mining. ACS Chem. Biol., 2022, in press. Link
  3. Samples, R.M.; Puckett, S.P.; Balunas, M.J.* MPACT: an advanced informatics tool for metabolomics and data visualization of specialized metabolites from complex microbial samples. Preprint, https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2022-r0xbx
  4. Jin, Y.; Schladetsch, M.A.; Huang, X.; Balunas, M.J.; Wiemer, A.J. Stepping forward in antibody-drug conjugate development. Pharmacol. Ther., 2022, 229, 107917. Link
  5. Tan, K.C.; Pham, T.X.; Lee, Y.; Lee, J.-Y.; Balunas, M.J.* Identification of apocarotenoids as chemical markers of in vitro anti-inflammatory activity for spirulina supplements. J. Ag. Food Chem., 2021, 69, 12674-12685. Link
  6. Clark, K.E.; Capper, A.; Liu, W.-T.; Fenner, A.M.; Almanza, A.; Della Togna, G.; Herrera, L.; Johns, T.; Dorrestein, P.C.; Paul, V.P.; Capson, T.L.; Balunas, M.J.* Sequestration and cyanobacterial diet preferences in the opisthobranch molluscs Dolabrifera nicaraguana and Stylocheilus rickettsi. Front. Mar. Sci., 2021, 8, 766282. Link
  7. Caraballo-Rodríguez, A.M.; Puckett, S.P.; Kyle, K.E.; Petras, D.; da Silva, R.; Nothias, L.-F.; Ernst, M.; van der Hooft, J.J.J.; Tripathi, A.; Wang, M.; Balunas, M.J.; Klassen, J.L.*; Dorrestein, P.C.* Chemical gradients of plant substrates in an Atta texana fungus garden. mSystems, 2021, 6, e00601-21. Link
  8. Balunas, M.J.; Cragg, G.M.; Gibbons, S.; Mata, R. Professor A. Douglas Kinghorn. A lifetime career dedicated to outstanding service to natural product sciences. J. Nat. Prod., 2021, 84, 549-552. (editorial) Link
  9. Hagan, A.K.; Lesniak, N.A.; Balunas, M.J.; Bishop, L.; Close, W.L.; Doherty, M.D.; Elmore, A.G.; Flynn, K.L.; Hannigan, G.D.; Koumpouras, C.; Jenior, M.L.; Kozik, A.J.; McBride, K.; Rifkin, S.B.; Stough, J.M.A.; Sovacool, K.L.; Sze, M.A.; Tomkovich, S.; Topcuoglu, B.D.; Schloss, P.D.* Ten simple rules to increase computational skills among biologists with code clubs. PLoS Comput. Biol., 2020, 16, e1008119. Link
  10. Suria, A.M.†; Tan, K.C.†; Kerwin, A.H.; Gitzel, L.; Abini-Agbomson, L.; Bertenshaw, J.M.; Sewell, J.; Nyholm, S.V.*, Balunas, M.J.* Hawaiian bobtail squid symbionts inhibit marine bacteria via specialized metabolite production, including new bromoalterochromides, BAC-D/D'. mSphere, 2020, 5, e00166-20. †These authors contributed equally. Link
  11. Samples, R.M.; Balunas, M.J.* Bridging the gap: Plant-endophyte interactions as a roadmap to understanding small molecule communication in marine microbiomes. ChemBioChem, 2020, 21, 2708-2721. Link
  12. Maloney, K.N.*; Botts, R.T.; Davis, T.S.; Okada, B.K.; Maloney, E.M.; Leber, C.A.; Alvarado, O.; Brayton, C.; Caraballo, M.; Chari, J.V.; Chicoine, B.; Crompton, J.C.; Davis, S.R.; Gromek, S.M.; Kurnianda, V.; Quach, K.; Samples, R.M.; Shieh, V.; Sultana, C.M.; Tanaka, J.; Dorrestein, P.C.; Balunas, M.J.; McFadden, C.S.* Cryptic species account for the seemingly idiosyncratic secondary metabolism of Sarcophyton glaucum specimens collected in Palau. J. Nat. Prod., 2020, 83, 693-705. Link
  13. Puckett, S.P.†; Samples, R.M.†; Schloss, P.D.; Balunas, M.J.* Metabolomics and the microbiome: Characterizing molecular diversity in complex microbial communities. In Comprehensive Natural Products III: Chemistry and Biology; Liu, H.-W. and Begley, T.P., Eds.; Elsevier: London, 2020; pp 502-518. †These authors contributed equally. Link
  14. Wang, M.; Jarmusch, A.K.; Vargas, F.; Aksenov, A.A.; Gauglitz, J.M.; Weldon, K.; Petras, D.; da Silva, R.; Quinn, R.; Melnik, A.V.; van der Hooft, J.J.J.; Caraballo Rodríguez, A.M.; Nothias, L.F.; Aceves, C.M.; Panitchpakdi, M.; Brown, E.; Di Ottavio, F.; Sikora, N.; Elijah, E.O.; Labarta-Bajo, L.; Gentry, E.C.; Shalapour, S.; Kyle, K.E.; Puckett, S.P.; Watrous, J.D.; Carpenter, C.S.; Bouslimani, A.; Ernst, M.; Swafford, A.D.; Zúñiga, E.I.; Balunas, M.J.; Klassen, J.L.; Loomba, R.; Knight, R.; Bandeira, N.; Dorrestein, P.C.* MASST: A web-based basic mass spectrometry search tool for molecules to search public data. Nat. Biotechnol., 2020, 38, 23-26. Link
  15. Kerwin, A.H.†; Gromek, S.M.†; Suria, A.M.; Samples, R.M.; Deoss, D.J.; O’Donnell, K.; Frasca, S., Jr.; Sutton, D.A.; Wiederhold, N.P.; Balunas, M.J.*; Nyholm, S.V.* Shielding the next generation: symbiotic bacteria from a reproductive organ protect bobtail squid eggs from fungal fouling. mBio, 2019, 10, e02376-19. †These authors contributed equally. Link
  16. van Santen, J.A.; Jacob, G.; Singh, A.L.; Aniebok, V.; Balunas, M.J.; Bunsko, D.; Carnevale Neto, F.; Castaño-Espriu, L.; Chang, C.; Clark, T.N.; Clearly Little, J.L.; Delgadillo, D.A.; Dorrestein, P.C.; Duncan, K.R.; Egan, J.M.; Galey, M.M.; Haeckl, F.P.J.; Hua, A.; Hughes, A.H.; Iskakova, D.; Khadilkar, A.; Lee, J.-H.; Lee, S.; LeGrow, N.; Liu, D.Y.; Macho, J.M.; McCaughey, C.S.; Medema, M.H.; Neupane, R.P.; O'Donnell, T.J.; Paula, J.S.; Sanchez, L.M.; Shaikh, A.F.; Soldatou, S.; Terlouw, B.R.; Tran, T.A.; Valentine, M.; van der Hooft, J.J.J.; Vo, D.A.; Wang, M.; Wilson, D.; Zink, K.E.; Linington, R.G.* The Natural Products Atlas: An open access knowledge base for microbial natural products discovery. ACS Cent. Sci., 2019, 5, 1824-1833. Link
  17. Tayler, N.M.; Boya, C.A.; Herrera, L.; Moy, J.; Ng, M.; Pineda, L.; Almanza, A.; Rosero, S.; Coronado, L.M.; Correa, R.; Santamaría, R.; Caballero, Z.; Duran-Archibold, A.A.; Tidgewell, K.J.; Balunas, M.J.; Gerwick, W.H.; Spadafora, A.; Gutiérrez, M.; Spadafora, C. Analysis of the antiparasitic and anticancer activity of the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera L. ARECACEAE) from the natural reserve of Punta Patiño, Darién. PLoS One, 2019, 14, e0214193. Link
  18. Trexler, S.; Nguyen, E.; Gromek, S.M.; Balunas, M.J.; Baker, B.L. Electrocardiographic effects of hawthorn (Crataegus oxycantha) in healthy volunteers: A randomized controlled trial. Phytother. Res., 2018, 32, 1642-1646. Link
  19. da Silva, R.R.; Wang, M.; Nothias, L.-F.; van der Hooft, J.J.J.; Caraballo-Rodríguez, A.M.; Fox, E.; Balunas, M.J.; Klassen, J.L.; Lopes, N.P.; Dorrestein, P.C. Propagating annotations of molecular networks using in silico fragmentation. PLoS Comput. Biol., 2018, 14, e1006089. Link
  20. Sung, A.A.†; Gromek,S.M.†; Balunas, M.J.* Upregulation and identification of antibiotic activity of a marine-derived Streptomyces sp. via co-cultures with human pathogens. Mar. Drugs, 2017, 15, 250. †These authors contributed equally. Link
  21. Juliano, S.A.; Pierce, S.; deMayo, J.A.; Balunas, M.J.; Angeles-Boza, A.M. Exploration of the innate immune system of Styela clava: Zn2+ binding enhances the antimicrobial activity of the tunicate peptide clavanin A. Biochem., 2017, 56, 1403-1414. Link
  22. deMayo, J.A.; Maas, K.R.; Klassen, J.L.; Balunas, M.J.* Draft genome sequence of Streptomyces sp. AVP053U2 isolated from Styela clava, a tunicate collected in Long Island Sound. Genome Announc., 2016, 4, e00874-16. Link
  23. Gromek, S.M.; deMayo, J.A.; Maxwell, A.T.; West, A.M.; Pavlik, C.M.; Zhao, Z.; Li, J.; Wiemer, A.J.; Zweifach, A.; Balunas, M.J.* Synthesis and biological evaluation of santacruzamate A analogues for anti-proliferative and immunomodulatory activity. Bioorg. Med. Chem., 2016, 24, 5183-5196. Link
  24. Gromek, S.M.; Sung, A.A.; Klassen, J.L.; Balunas, M.J.* Draft genome sequence of Streptomyces sp. strain PTY087I2 isolated from Styela canopus, a Panamanian tunicate. Genome Announc., 2016, 4, e00856-16. Link
  25. Gromek, S.M.†; Suria, A.†; Fullmer, M.S.; Garcia, J.L.; Gogarten, J.P.; Nyholm, S.V.*; Balunas, M.J.* Leisingera sp. JC1, a bacterial isolate from Hawaiian bobtail squid eggs, produces indigoidine and differentially inhibits vibrios. Front. Microbiol., 2016, 7, 1342. †These authors contributed equally. Link
  26. Zhao, Z.; deMayo, J.A.; West, A.M.; Balunas, M.J.*; Zweifach, A.* Development of an enhanced phenotypic screen of cytotoxic T lymphocyte lytic granule exocytosis suitable for use with synthetic compound and natural product collections. J. Biomol. Screen, 2016, 21, 556-566. Link
  27. Tao, G.; Balunas, M.J.* Current therapeutic role and medicinal potential of Scutellaria barbata in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western research. J. Ethnopharmacol., 2016, 182, 170-180. Link
  28. Doucette, J.; Zhao, Z.; Geyer, R.J.; Barra, M.M.; Balunas, M.J.; Zweifach, A. Flow cytometry enables multiplexed measurements of genetically-encoded intramolecular FRET sensors suitable for screening. J. Biomol. Screen, 2016, 21, 535-547. Link
  29. Fenner, A.M.; Engene, N.; Spadafora, C.; Gerwick, W.H.; Balunas, M.J.* Medusamide: A Panamanian cyanobacterial depsipeptide with multiple β-amino acids. Org. Lett. 2016, 18, 352-355. Link
  30. Ku, C.-S.; Kim, B.; Pham, T.X.; Yang, Y.; Wegner, C.J.; Park, Y.-K.; Balunas, M.J.; Lee, J.-Y. Blue-green algae inhibit the development of atherosclerotic lesions in apolipoprotein E knockout mice. J. Med. Food 2015, 18, 1-8. Link
  31. Shao, C.-L.; Linington, R.G.; Balunas, M.J.; Centeno, A.; Boudreau, P.; Zhang, C.; Engene, N.; Spadafora, C.; Mutka, T.S.; Kyle, D.E.; Gerwick, L.; Wang, C.-Y.; Gerwick, W.H. Bastimolide A, a potent antimalarial polyhydroxy macrolide from the marine cyanobacterium Okeania hirsuta. J. Org. Chem. 2015, 80, 7849-7855. Link
  32. Gromek, S.M.; West, A.W.; Balunas, M.J.* Off the beathen path: Natural products from extreme environments. In Marine Biomedicine: From Beach to Bedside; Baker, B.J., Ed.; CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 2015; Chapter 12, pp 341-378.
  33. Gromek, S.M.; Balunas, M.J.* Natural products as exquisitely potent cytotoxic payloads for antibody-drug conjugrates. Curr. Top. Med. Chem. 2014, 14, 2822-2834. Link
  34. Carneiro, V.M.T.; Avila, C.M.; Balunas, M.J.; Gerwick, W.H.; Pilli, R.A. Coibacins A and B: Total synthesis and stereochemical revision. J. Org. Chem. 2014, 79, 630-642. Link
  35. Pavlik, C.M.; Wong, C.Y.B.; Ononye, S.; Lopez, D.D.; Engene, N.; McPhail, K.L.; Gerwick, W.H.; Balunas, M.J.* Santacruzamate A, a potent and selective histone deacetylase inhibitor from the Panamanian marine cyanobacterium cf. Symploca sp. J. Nat. Prod. 2013, 76, 2026-2033. Link
  36. Gerwick, L.; Boudreau, P.; Choi, H.; Mascuch, S.; Villa, F.A.; Balunas, M.J.; Malloy, K.; Teasdale, M.E.; Rowley, D.C.; Gerwick, W.H. Interkingdom signaling by structurally related cyanobacterial and algal secondary metabolites. Phytochem. Rev. 2013, 12, 459-465. Link
  37. Balunas, M.J.* Attempting to solve the disconnect between humans and nature with plant-based drugs. Ecol. 2013, 94, 262-263. Link
  38. Balunas, M.J.; Grosso, M.F.; Villa, F.A.; Engene, N.; McPhail, K.L.; Tidgewell, K.; Pineda, L.M.; Gerwick, L.; Spadafora, C.; Kyle, D.E.; Gerwick, W.H. Coibacins A-D, antileishmanial marine cyanobacterial polyketides with intriguing biosynthetic origins. Org. Lett. 2012, 14, 3878-3881. Link
  39. Balunas, M.J.*; Kinghorn, A.D. Natural product compounds with aromatase inhibitory activity: An update. Planta Med. 2010, 76, 1087-1093. Link
  40. Balunas, M.J.; Linington, R.G.; Tidgewell, K.; Fenner, A.M.; Ureña, L.D.; Kyle, D.E.; Gerwick, W.H. Dragonamide E, a modified linear lipopeptide from Lyngbya majuscula with antileishmanial activity. J. Nat. Prod. 2010, 73, 60-66. Link
  41. Deng, Y.; Balunas, M.J.; Kim, J.-A.; Lantvit, D.D.; Chin, Y.-W.; Chai, H..; Sugiarso, S.; Kardono, L.B.S.; Fong, H.H.S.; Pezzuto, J.M.; Swanson, S.M.; Carcache de Blanco, E.J.; Kinghorn, A.D. Bioactive 5,6-dihydro-α-pyrone derivatives from Hyptis brevipes. J. Nat. Prod. 2009, 72, 1165-1169. Link
  42. Balunas, M.J.; Su, B.; Riswan, S.; Fong, H.H.S.; Brueggemeier, R.W.; Pezzuto, J.M.; Kinghorn, A.D. Isolation and characterization of aromatase inhibitors from Brassaiopsis glomerulata (Blume) Regel. Phytochemistry Lett. 2009, 2, 29-33. Link
  43. Balunas, M.J.; Su, B.; Brueggemeier, R.W.; Kinghorn, A.D. Xanthones from the botanical dietary supplement mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) with aromatase inhibitory activity. J. Nat. Prod. 2008, 71, 1161-1166. Link
  44. Balunas, M.J.; Su, B.; Brueggemeier, R.W.; Kinghorn, A.D. Natural products as aromatase inhibitors. Anticancer Agents Med. Chem. 2008, 8, 646-682. Link
  45. Chin, Y.-W.; Balunas, M.J.; Chai, H.B.; Kinghorn, A.D. Drug Discovery from Natural Sources. In Drug Addiction. From Basic Research to Therapy; Rapaka, R.S., Sadée, W., Eds.; Springer/AAPS Press, New York, 2008; pp 17-39. (content appeared previously in AAPS J.)
  46. Balunas, M.J.; Jones, W.P.; Chin, Y.-W.; Mi, Q.; Farnsworth, N.R.; Soejarto, D.D.; Cordell, G.A.; Swanson, S.M.; Pezzuto, J.M.; Chai, H.-B.; Kinghorn, A.D. Relationships between inhibitory activity against a cancer cell line panel, profiles of plants collected, and compound classes isolated in an anticancer drug discovery project. Chem. Biodivers. 2006, 3, 897-915. Link
  47. Chin, Y.-W.; Balunas, M.J.; Chai, H.B.; Kinghorn, A.D. Drug discovery from natural sources. AAPS J. 2006, 8, E239-E253. Link
  48. Balunas, M.J.; Su, B.; Landini, S.; Brueggemeier, R.W.; Kinghorn, A.D. Interference by naturally occurring fatty acids in a non-cellular, enzyme-based aromatase bioassay. J. Nat. Prod. 2006, 69, 700-703. Link
  49. Balunas, M.J.; Kinghorn, A.D. Drug discovery from medicinal plants. Life Sci. 2005, 78, 431-441. Link
  50. Balunas, M.J.; Kimmerer, R.W. 2002. The restoration potential of goldthread, an Iroquois medicinal plant. Ecol. Restor. 2002, 20, 59-60. Link