Research lines or specialties:
Marine and terrestrial natural product chemistry, organic chemistry, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mass spectrometry (MS), chemical ecology, secondary chemistry of bacteria associated with marine invertebrates, frogs and ants, microbial interactions.
Summary of resume:
Dr. Gutiérrez is a staff scientist and coordinator of the INDICASAT-AIP Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery. He obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from the University of Panama in 2000 working on bioactive natural products from plants. In 2001 he began his doctoral studies at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in the laboratory of Dr. Ricardo Riguera, working on the isolation and structural determination of bioactive metabolites from octocorals. After his doctoral studies, Dr. Gutiérrez carried out a postdoctoral stay at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California at San Diego, in the laboratory of Dr. William H. Gerwick, working on the isolation and structural determination anticancer natural products from marine cyanobacteria. In 2008, Dr. Gutiérrez returned to Panama and for the last thirteen years he has led his research group at INDICASAT establishing a new line of research in natural products of microbial origin. In 2010 Dr. Gutiérrez received the TWAS-APANAC award for young scientists for his contributions to the chemistry of natural marine products from Panama. The laboratory of Dr. Gutiérrez has started and maintains in INDICASAT a collection of bacteria with more than 5000 marine strains and as a result of his research, Dr. Gutiérrez, together with his group, has produced about 40 publications, which include the first studies of chemistry of natural products of marine invertebrates of Panama and their associated bacteria.
Selected publications:
Moree, W. J; McConnell, O.; Nguyen, D. D.; Sánchez, M. L.; Zhao, X.; Yang, Yu. L.; Boudreau, P.; J.; Sánchez, Atencio, L.; Gavilán, R.; Guzmán, H.; Gerwick, W. H.; Gutiérrez, M.; Dorrestein, P.C. Microbiota of healthy corals protect against fungi in a light dependent manner. ACS Chem. Biol., 2014, 9, 2300–2308.
González, Y.; Santamaría, R.; Doens, D.; Ramos, M.; Restrepo, C.; Arruda, L.; Lleonart, R.; Gutiérrez, M.; Fernández, P. L. A pseudopterane diterpene isolated from the octocoral Pseudopterogorgia acerosa inhibits the response induced in macrophages by different ligands of TLRs and TNF-a. Plos One, 2013, 8, e84107
Moree, W. J.; Yang, J. Y.; Liu, W. T.; Zhao, X.; Gavilán, R. G.; Aparicio, M.; Atencio, L.; Ballesteros, J.; Sánchez, J.; Gutiérrez, M.; Dorrestein, P. C. Imaging mass spectrometry of a coral microbe interaction with fungi. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 2013, 39, 1045-1054.
Nguyen, D. D.; Wu, C. H.; Moree, W. J.; Lamsa, A.; Medema, M. H.; Zhao, X.; Gavilán, R. G.; Aparicio, M.; Atencio, L.; Jackson, C.; Ballesteros, J.; Sánchez, J.; Watrous, J. D.; Phelan, V. V.; Van de Wiel, C.; Kersten, R. D.; Mehnaz, S.; De Mot, R.; Shank, E. A.; Charusanti, P.; Nagarajan, H.; Duggan, B. M.; Moore, B. S.; Bandeira, N.; Palsson, B.; Pogliano, K.; Gutiérrez, M.; Dorrestein, P. C. MS/MS networking guided analysis of molecule and gene cluster families, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013, 24, E2611-E2620, doi:10.1073/pnas.1303471110
Gómez-Reyes, J. F.; Salazar, A.; Guzmán, H. M.; González, Y.; Fernández, P. L.; Ariza-Castolo, A.; Gutiérrez, M. seco-Briarellinone and Briarellin S, Two New Eunicellin-Based Diterpenoids from the Panamanian Octocoral Briareum asbestinum. Drugs, 2012, 10, 2608-2617.
Martínez, S.; Gómez, J. F.; Spadafora, C.; Guzmán, H. M.; Gutierrez, M., Antitrypanosomal Alkaloids from the Marine Bacterium Bacillus pumilus. Molecules, 2012, 17, 11146-11155.
Thesis in process:
Principal tutor of students of the Doctorate Program in Biotechnology (INDICASAT- Acharya Nagarjuna University)
- Daniel Torres Mendoza. Chemical interactions among marine invertebrate associated bacteria: Discovery of new compounds with biomedical potential.
- Christopher Boya. Compounds with biomedical potential from actinomycete associated to Attine ants.
- Christian Martin. Exploring the Biodiversity and Bioactive Secondary Metabolites of Cutaneous Bacteria from Amphibians of Panamá
- Librada Atencio. Genomic-driven discovery of natural products from species of Pseudoalteromonas associated to marine invertebrates
- Candelario Rodríguez. Chemistry and biomedical potential of natural products from panamanian poison frogs

Marcelino Gutiérrez, PhD
Highest degree of studies: Doctorate, University of Santiago de Compostela
Category: Researcher
National Research System Level (SIN): Distinguished Researcher
Contact information:
E-mail: mgutierrez@indicasat.org.pa
Phone: +507 517 0732, +507 517 0700.