Patrick Kobina Arthur BSc (Ghana), MSc, PhD (Göttingen)

Dr. Patrick Kobina Arthur is lecturer at Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology of the University of Ghana. He obtained his PhD in Developmental Biochemistry at the University of Göttingen in Germany. He has undertaken several post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Maryland - College Park, USA, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETH-Zurich) and the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge in the UK. The research activities are in the area Chemical Systems Biology of Infectious Pathogens that comprises Infection Biology of Tuberculosis, etc, Chemical Biology of Fungal Metabolites, Advanced Imaging Techniques and Mass Spectrometry based Proteomics of the perturbations caused in infectious pathogens by novel bioactive compounds. The mission of Dr. Arthur's research is towards the discovery and development a new antibiotics against tropical infectious diseases. Towards the discovery the novel anti-infective agents, the research group has presently isolated and screened more than three thousand distinct fungal species. The surprisingly high rate of the occurrence of anti-infective activities in the culture extracts of these fungi has led the group to develop a phenotypic array-based workflow as a key strategy. This allows for the comparison of the bioactive extracts to many standard antibiotics on the basis of their pattern of activities across different physiological conditions of the test organisms. Dr. Arthur’s group is currently in the process of isolating pure compounds from fungal extracts from the priority list. These compounds will be extensively characterized using NMR-structural elucidation, advanced imaging techniques and mass spectrometry-based proteomics to provide understanding of their mechanism of action to support pre-clinical development. Dr. Arthur has won a number of research grants from a number of organisations, such as DAAD-Germany, Grand Challenges Canada, TWAS-Italy, IFS-Sweden, and Gates Foundation/ NMIMR. Dr. Arthur was also selected as a fellow attending the Nobel Laureates Lindau Meeting as well as a member of the Global Young Academy (GYA) in 2012 where he served as a non-voting member of the Executive Committee of the GYA from 2012-2013.

AREA OF SPECIALIZATION

Infectious Diseases

Drug Discovery

Chemical Biology: Natural Products from fungal metabolites

Enzyme Biochemistry

Fungai Culturing

Biofuel and Microalgae culturing

RESEARCH INTEREST

Chemical Biology and Proteomics in the Context of Infectious Diseases

• Isolation and characterization of novel bioactive compounds from organisms originating from tropical-equatorial biodiversity hotspots, namely:

• Basidiomycetes (Wood Decaying Fungi),
• Ascomycetes (Marine Endophytic Fungi)
• Microalgae
• Actinomycetes

• Targeted Proteomics (Selected Reaction Monitoring) of Mycobacteria (in collaboration with the Aebersold Lab, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland).

• Chemical proteomics of target proteins in human parasites to specific novel bioactives and vice versa as well as corresponding off-target cellular proteins in humans

• Comparative and functional proteomics on target proteins & specific novel bioactives

• Clinical proteomics of novel bioactives, identification of biomarkers for in vivo activities

• Protein Biochemistry - Establish a library of 100 enzymes for molecular biology applications

• Molecular and structural dynamics of ribonucleoprotein complexes.

RESEARCH JOURNAL PUBLICATION

4. Schubert, O. T., Mouritsen, J., Ludwig, C., Rost, H. L., Rosenberger, G., Arthur, P. K., Claassen, M., Campbell, D. S., Sun, Z., Farrah, T., Gengenbacher, M., Kaufmann, S.H.E., Moritz, R. L., Aebersold, R.  (2013) 'The Mtb Proteome Library: A Resource of Assays to Quantify the Complete Proteome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis', Cell Host Microbe 13(5): 602-12

3. Expression, purification and analysis of the activity of enzymes from the pentose phosphate pathway. Arthur PK, Alvarado LJ, Dayie TK., Protein Expr Purif. 2010 Nov 23.

2. Elr-type proteins protect Xenopus Dead end mRNA from miR-18-mediated clearance in the soma. Koebernick K, Loeber J, Arthur PK, Tarbashevich K, Pieler T. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Sep 14;107(37):16148-53.

1. Participation of Xenopus Elr-type proteins in vegetal mRNA localization during oogenesis. Arthur PK, Claussen M, Koch S, Tarbashevich K, Jahn O, Pieler T. J Biol Chem. 2009 Jul 24;284(30):19982-92.

Research Conference Publications

11. Towards the Isolation of Antimycobacterial Compounds from Wood Decaying Fungi.Arthur, P. K., Opoku-Temeng, C., Amarh, V., Arkaifie, G. B.,  Adadey, S. M.  And Cramer P.

(2014 April: Keystone Symposia. Keystone Resort, “Novel Therapeutics Approaches to Tuberculosis”)

10. Variation of Media Conditions Leads To The Isolation Of Highly Diverse Bioactive Compound-producing Air Borne Fungi (ABF). Arthur, P. K., Opoku-Temeng, C., and Abraham, A.

(2013 July: Ghana Bio-Medical Convention, Poster)

9. Impact of media formulation on the production of anti-mycobacterial compounds from wood decay fungi (WDF) Arthur, P. K., Adadey SM, Aboagye, S.Y., Amarh, V., and Lartey, P. A.

(2013 July: Ghana Bio-Medical Convention, Poster)

8. Development of bioassay for the screening of beta-lactam antibiotics from extracts of wood decay fungi against multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Arthur, P. K., Arkaifie, G. B., Aboagye, S.Y., Amarh, V., and Lartey, P. A.

(2013 July: Ghana Bio-Medical Convention, Poster)

7. Analysis of the Influence of Light on Bioactive Metabolite Production by Marine Endophytic Fungi.  Arthur P.K., C. Opoku-Temeng, P.A Lartey

(2013 July: Ghana Bio-Medical Convention, Poster)

6. Analysis of Anti-mycobacterial compounds produced by Marine Endophytic Fungi Found in Ghana. Arthur, P. K., Opoku-Temeng, C., Koduah, P., Amarh, V., and Adadey, S.M.

   >(2013 July Gordon Conference – Tuberculosis Drug Development Italy: Poster Presentation)

   >(2013 July: Ghana Bio-Medical Convention, TALK)

5. Discovery of New Antimicrobial Compounds Against Drug-Resistant Infections From Fungal Sources in Ghana. Arthur, P. K., Aboagye, S. Y., Amarh V., Opoku-Temeng, C. and Lartey, P. A.

(2013 Bayer Lindau Science Dialogue – Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting for Young Researchers, Lindau – Germany: Poster Presentation)

4. Targeted Proteomics of Mycobacterial Responses to Hypoxia and Screen for Antimycobacterial Compounds from Fungal Extracts. P. K. Arthur, O. Schubert, S. Aboagye, V. Amarh and R. Aebersold. (2012 Tuberculosis Conference – Institute Pasteur, Paris: Poster Presentation)

3. Targeted Proteomics of Mycobacterial Responses to Hypoxia and Screen for Antimycobacterial Compounds from Fungal Extracts. P. K. Arthur, O. Schubert, S. Aboagye, V. Amarh and R. Aebersold. (2012 Tuberculosis Conference – Institute Pasteur, Paris: Poster)

2. The Mtb Proteome Atlas: A Compendium of Assays for Complete, Quantitative Proteome Analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis O. Schubert, P. K. Arthur, R. Aebersold, et al

(2012 Tuberculosis Conference – Institute Pasteur, Paris: Talk by Olga Schubert)

1. Indigenous Wood Decaying Fungi: High potential Source for Novel Anti-Infective Agents Arthur, P. K., Lartey, P. A. ¹Aboagye, S.Y., ¹Amarh, V. (Ghana Bio-Medical Convention, August 2012: TALK)

Research funding

Student Training record

Graduate Training

Undergraduate Training