Bioactive Compounds from Slime Molds and Fungi

Our other paper on neuroprotective effects of melanin is now available online:

Neuroprotective effects of melanins and melanin derivatives from Calvatia Craniiformis and Xylaria plebeja against Parkinsonian toxins - Scientific Reports Fungal melanins have remarkable bioactivities, but their practical applications are limited, partly due to their hydrophobic nature. Melanin modification with amino acids was reported to improve their water solubility. This research aimed to extract, and modify the melanins from Calvatia craniiformi...

Our first article on bioactivities of fungal melanins is now available online:

Antioxidant, neuroprotective, and neuroblastoma cells (SH-SY5Y) differentiation effects of melanins and arginine-modified melanins from Daedaleopsis tricolor and Fomes fomentarius - BMC Biotechnology Background Microbial melanins possess a broad spectrum of biological activities. However, there is little understanding of their neuroprotective and neuronal cell differentiation properties. This study aimed to extract, purify, and modify melanins from two medicinal fungi (Daedaleopsis tricolor and....

If you're interested in fungal research and familiar with mycelial culture, our group is having an exciting opportunity for you. We've got a potential fungal candidate for neuroprotective compounds research and would like to hire a short term researcher to culture the fungus in liquid media for mycelial production and prepare crude extracts from the collected mycelia. The salary will be modest, but you get a chance to be co-author of our related publication(s).
For further information, please contact me at [email protected]

Our recently published paper in the International Journal of Food Science and Technology:

Fermented or not fermented: a comparative study of the biological activities and microbiomes of a non‐fermented green tea and a five‐year‐old fermented tea prepared from young leaves of Shan tea The fermented tea would appear to have some advantages over the green tea. However, the presence and density of B. cereus should be monitored.

Our other recent publication:

Anti-ultraviolet, antibacterial, and biofilm eradication activities against Cutibacterium acnes of melanins and melanin derivatives from Daedaleopsis tricolor and Fomes fomentarius Fomes fomentarius and Daedaleopsis tricolor produced significant amounts of water-insoluble melanins, and our previous study successfully enhanced their water solubility by arginine modification. This research aimed to investigate the anti-ultraviolet, antibacterial, and biofilm eradication activiti...

One of our recent publications on the applications of fungal melanins is now available online:

Initial Study on Physiochemical Property and Antibacterial Activity against Skin-Infecting Bacteria of Silver Nanoparticles Biologically Produced Using Crude Melanin from Xylaria sp. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) produced by biological methods are safer for biomedical applications. Melanins were initially reported to facilitate AgNPs synthesis. Our research found that the stromata of some Xylaria species contained significant amounts of melanins, which had strong antioxidant and....