Integrating omics technologies in natural product research for drug discovery

This workshop presented an integrated multi-omics approach to natural product–based drug discovery using Solanum lasiocarpum as a case study, demonstrating how morphology, chloroplast genomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics can be jointly analyzed to clarify species variation and uncover functional biochemical pathways. The sharing highlighted key findings on the metabolic characteristics of mature fruits — particularly energy and carbon-skeleton metabolism, lipid remodeling, and aromatic secondary metabolite biosynthesis — and further linked these pathways to potential antidiabetic mechanisms using network pharmacology and proposed validation through in vitro, in vivo, and PK/PD studies. Overall, the workshop showcased a systematic “pathway-to target” framework that bridges plant biology, metabolite profiling, and translational pharmacology to support future natural product and therapeutic discovery.