Dr. Penthip Muangkaew

Penthip Muangkaew finished her Ph.D. at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand under the supervision of Professor Dr. Tirayut Vilaivan in the title of “pyrrolidinyl peptide nucleic acid probe capable of crosslinking with DNA”.

She was a postdoctoral researcher in the OBCR group under the supervision of Professor Dr. Annemieke Madder.

Her research mainly focused on the synthesis of Fluorescent Cyclic Lipodepsipeptides to gain insight into their mode of action.

Research Project

Towards Fluorescent Cyclic Lipodepsipeptides in the battle against cancer

Our group, together with the group of Prof. Martins (NMRSTR), has a long-lasting interest in cyclic lipodepsipeptides (CLIPs). These natural products, produced by Pseudomonas bacteria, are composed of a cyclic oligopeptide closed by an ester or ‘depsi’-bond and feature a fatty acid. Their biological properties are very diverse, making them the bacterial equivalent of a “Swiss Army Knife”. So far, interest has mainly focused on antimicrobial activity and antifungal activity. More recently, our attention has shifted to their promising anticancer potential. However, one could imagine that full knowledge on why and how these peptides work on the cellular membrane is a necessity before engaging in further development. A next crucial milestone is designing fluorescently tagged CLiPs, which would allow visualizing the peptide-cancer cell interaction using confocal microscopy.