Jaclyn Winter

Jaclyn Winter is an Associate Professor at the University of Utah, affiliated with the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and the Biological Chemistry Program. Her research focuses on natural product biosynthesis, drug discovery, synthetic biology, and antibiotic resistance, leveraging marine fungi and Great Salt Lake microorganisms as model systems.

• B.S. from State University of New York, Fredonia
• Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Her work explores the chemical diversity of secondary metabolites in extreme environments, using molecular biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, and genomics to uncover novel therapeutic agents and biosynthetic mechanisms. Comparative genomic studies of Great Salt Lake isolates against marine/terrestrial strains aim to identify heavy metal resistance genes for bioremediation.

Recent projects include bioinformatic pipeline development (e.g., ReGAIN, MIBiG 4.0) and NRPS/terpene synthase characterization to enhance natural product structure prediction. Her articles highlight interdisciplinary approaches bridging genomics, structural biology, and synthetic methods for pharmaceutical and environmental applications.

In drug discovery efforts, her team prioritizes underexplored microbial resources like hypersaline environments, where unique antimicrobial compounds and chemical modifications are observed. She also investigates reprogramming biosynthetic systems to generate inaccessible derivatives via chemoenzymatic synthesis, addressing challenges in traditional fermentation and synthetic chemistry.