Antbiotic Thiostrepton Synthesis Follows Unusual Chemical Pathway by Colleen Fleiss on January 18, 2021 at 10:41 PM In culture, the antibiotic thiostrepton is very potent against Gram-positive pathogens and can even target certain breast cancer cells, said researchers. "While it has been used topically in veterinary medicine, so far it has been ineffective in humans because it is poorly absorbed. Importantly, this reaction is found in the biosynthesis of numerous other antibiotics, and so the work has the potential to be far reaching," said Squire Booker, a biochemist at Penn State and investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. ‘Researchers studied the first steps in thiostrepton's biosynthesis in hopes of eventually being able to hijack certain processes and make analogs of the molecule that might have better medicinal properties.’