Liberal Arts and Sciences
Rudolf Lab
Led by Jeffrey Rudolf · Chemistry
What we study
The Rudolf Lab discovers new small‑molecule natural products made by bacteria and learns how the microbes build them. Students use chemistry experiments, genetics, bioinformatics and metabolomics to study and engineer the enzymes that make these compounds.
What working here is like
- Wet lab
- Computational
- Bacteria & microbes
- Coding required
- Project
- 1
- Papers
- 3
Current projects
Discovery of bacterial diterpenoids by genome mining
The lab searches bacterial genomes for genes that make terpenes, compounds used in medicines, herbicides and biofuels. The team tested candidate genes in E. coli and found five diterpenes, one with a structure never described before.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 155
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Exploring and expanding the natural chemical space of bacterial diterpenes
2024
Identifying and characterizing new diterpene compounds from bacterial genomes.
- Avoidance of secondary carbocations, unusual deprotonation, and non-statistical dynamic effects in the cyclization mechanism of the 5/5/5/5-tetracyclic tetraisoquinane skeleton
2024
Studying unusual cyclization mechanisms in complex organic molecules.
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- Cryptic isomerization in diterpene biosynthesis and the restoration of an evolutionarily defunct P450
2023
Investigating hidden isomerization steps and reviving a lost enzyme in diterpene production.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Jeffrey Rudolf hasn't set up this page yet. Their UF Scholars profile lists their publications.