Download Medical Botany Lab

Andrea Schwarzbach, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Biomedicine
Phone: 956.882.5057
Email: [email protected]
Medical Botany Lab
Dr. Schwarzbach’s lab group is studying various aspects of medicinal and nutritious plant
properties, their uses and benefits as well as authentication of plant materials and
phylogenetic origins. This work encompasses the study of botanical supplements and
functional plant foods to improve nutrition and health.
Examples of current research studies that allow undergraduate student participation
are:
1. Phylogenetic origin and spread of Kava.
Kava is an important medicinal plant containing kava
lactones generally prepared as a sedative and antianxiety agent. DNA sequencing and comparative
genomics methods are used to reconstruct
phylogenetic relationships of biogeographical varieties
of this species. This study will provide novel markers
to trace kava supplements to their place of origin and
allow identification of any adulteration of materials
leading to potential toxicity. This is a project that requires both molecular lab work as
well as bioinformatics work.
2. Comparative genomics of terpene synthase pathways.
Terpenoids are economically important compounds used for a wide variety of
applications such as perfumes, disinfectants, and anti-cancer medicines. Plants produce
a huge variety of terpenoids with the help of terpene synthase enzymes, however, the
pathways for production of the chemicals are not well understood. We are using
comparative genomic data to identify different terpene synthases that are found in
different groups of plants. This is a primarily bioinformatics approach that requires data
mining of large next-generation sequence data sets, genome assemblies and gene
annotations followed by comparative genomic analysis.