Author Archive

New additions to the macrocyclic bisbibenzyl family on the cover of NPR issue 2

Issue 2 of NPR is now online, including our regular Hot off the Press feature from Robert A. Hill and Andrew Sutherland and the latest marine natural products review from John Blunt et al.

The interesting cover article is from David Harrowven and Sarah Kostiuk, highlighting their review on the synthesis and stereochemistry of newly discovered macrocyclic bisbenzyl natural products, a group commonly, but not exclusively, found in the bryophyte plant family. The review provides at timely update to that by G. M. Keserű and M. Nógrádi in 1995.

The issue also includes a Highlight article from Paris Hamilton and Dev Arya on natural product DNA major groove binders, and reviews on the biosynthesis of 3-amino-5-hydroxybenzoic acid-derived NPs and angucyclines.

View the issue

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Nominations for the 2012 RSC Prizes and Awards now open

Nominations for the 2012 RSC Prizes and Awards close on the 15 January 2012

Our Prizes and Awards represent the dedication and outstanding achievements and are a platform to showcase inspiring science to gain the recognition deserved. Don’t forget to nominate colleagues who have made a significant contribution to advancing the chemical sciences.

View our full list of Prizes and Awards and use the online system to nominate a colleague.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Challenges in Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology symposium

The first of the International Symposia on Advancing the Chemical Sciences (ISACS) series next year is to be Challenges in Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology (ISACS7) on 12 – 15 June at the University of Edinburgh, UK.

See the excellent list of confirmed speakers and details of the abstract submission process here.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

New Editorial Board members for NPR

We are delighted to announce the appointment of two new members to the Editorial Board of Natural Products Reports, Professors Ikuro Abe and Dirk Trauner who will be joining the Board in January 2012.

Ikuro Abe received his PhD degree in 1989 from The University of Tokyo under the direction of Professor Yutaka Ebizuka, where he studied chemistry and biochemistry of natural products biosynthesis.  After two years postdoctoral research with Professor Guy Ourisson at the CNRS Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles, and mostly with Professor Michel Rohmer at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Mulhouse, in France (1989-1991), he went to the USA to work with Professor Glenn D. Prestwich at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1991-1996) and then at The University of Utah (1996-1998) as a Research Assistant Professor.  In 1998, he returned to Japan to the University of Shizuoka, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (1998-2009).  In 2009, he moved back to The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences as Professor of Natural Products Chemistry.

His main research interests focus on exploring and engineering natural products biosynthesis, see below for some examples of his work:

Enzymatic synthesis of cyclic triterpenes
Ikuro Abe
DOI: 10.1039/B616857B

Structure and function of the chalcone synthase superfamily of plant type III polyketide synthases
Ikuro Abe and Hiroyuki Morita
DOI: 10.1039/B909988N


Dirk Trauner was born and grew up in Linz, Austria. After studying biology and then biochemistry at the University of Vienna, he joined Professor Johann Mulzerʼs group at the Free University of Berlin to pursue natural products synthesis. In the late 1990s, he was a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Samuel J. Danishefsky at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. In 2000, Dirk joined the University of California, Berkeley, where he rose through the ranks to become an Associate Professor of Chemistry. In summer of 2008, he moved to the University of Munich, where he currently resides as a Professor for Chemical Biology and Genetics.

His research interests range from organic synthesis and natural products to chemical neurobiology and optochemical genetics. View his contribution to our Synthesis themed issue below:

The chemistry of marine furanocembranoids, pseudopteranes, gersolanes, and related natural products
Paul A. Roethle and Dirk Trauner
DOI: 10.1039/B705660P

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

New Advisory Board members for NPR

The Editorial Office is pleased to announce the recent appointment of two new Advisory Board members for Natural Product Reports, Yeo Joon Yoon and Vanderlan da Silva Bolzani.

Yeo Joon Yoon received his PhD in chemical and biological engineering from Seoul National University in 2000. He has worked with Prof Charles R. Hutchinson at the University of Wisconsin at Madison as a predoctoral researcher and also with Prof David H. Sherman at the University of Minnesota as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2002 he returned to Korea as Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering at the University of Ulsan and then moved to Ewha Womans University in 2004, where he is Associate Professor of Chemistry.

His major scientific interests are the characterization of biosynthetic pathways for secondary metabolites, focusing on polyketides and aminoglycosides in actinomycetes, combinatorial biosynthesis of novel natural products, and the application of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology to the production of secondary metabolites.


Vanderlan da Silva Bolzani is full professor at Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), and has published over 186 research publications, 5 patents and 4 book chapters. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) and a Science Productivity CNPq Fellow, she has received several awards, the most recent is the Distinguished Woman in Science Chemistry and Chemical Engineering award conceived by the ACS & IUPAC. Her PhD degree in Organic Chemistry was obtained under the guidance of Professor Otto Richard Gottlieb, University of São Paulo and after a post-doctorate at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPISU-USA) she joined the São Paulo State University (UNESP). Dr. Bolzani is currently is Vice-Director of the UNESP Innovation Agency (AUIN), was President of the Brazilian Chemical Society from 2008-2010, and is currently Counsellor. 

Her field of interest is plant science, and she has been involved in the isolation, bioactivity and function of secondary metabolites and peptides from plants. Also she has studied biosynthesis of piperidine alkaloids, and recently has been involved in metabolomic studies of medicinal plants and sugar cane. She has strong work collaborations with national pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries looking for new drugs from plants species. 

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Latest issue online – flavonoids, SAM enzymes, hypervalent iodine regants and diterpenoids

Issue 10 is now available online, featuring some of our regular reviews from Peter Roach, Nigel Veitch and Jim Hanson.  Also in the issue, the latest Hot off the Press article from Robert Hill and Andrew Sutherland and an interesting review from Berit Olofsson on hypervalent iodine reagents in NP synthesis:

Flavonoids and their glycosides, including anthocyanins
Nigel C. Veitch and Renée J. Grayer, Nat. Prod. Rep., 2011, 28, 1626

Radical S-adenosylmethionine enzymes: Mechanism, control and function
Martin R. Challand, Rebecca C. Driesener and Peter L. Roach, Nat. Prod. Rep., 2011, 28, 1696

Hypervalent iodine reagents in the total synthesis of natural products
Luiz F. Silva, Jr., Berit Olofsson, Nat. Prod. Rep., 2011, 28, 1722

Diterpenoids of terrestrial origin
James R. Hanson, Nat. Prod. Rep., 2011, 28, 1755

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

RSC e-membership now launched

This week, the RSC launched a new product, RSC e-membership, allowing anyone to access an electronic version of Chemistry World through a MyRSC account and to enjoy the benefits of electronic networking via this professional online community for £20/year.

Subscribers to this do not benefit from the professional recognition or any of the other many services and discounts available to RSC Members, but it allows chemists from around the world, many already members of another chemical society in their own country, to benefit from the highly-esteemed content in Chemistry World and the networking opportunities offered from MyRSC, which now stands at over 11,000 members. The RSC e-membership also allows subscribers to join a virtual specialist interest group on MyRSC. If you are interested in joining, please visit www.rsc.org/emembership.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

NPR Issue 9 now available online

The latest issue of Natural Product Reports is now online, and features a review from Ronald J. Quinn et al. on the cover.  Their article examines Protein Fold Topology correlations between natural products and biosynthetic enzymes and therapeutic targets and suggests that this could explain why nature produces such a large proportion of existing drugs.

Also in the issue we have an article from Alvaro M. Vijoen on natural products in anti-obesity therapy, a review from Muhammad Saleem and Karsten Krohn on difficulties in developing new naturally derived antibiotics, and a regular review article from Braulio M. Fraga on natural sesquiterpenoids.

View the issue

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

NPR Lecture Award presented at ASP 2011

The NPR Lecture Award was presented to 2011 winner Christian Hertweck at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Pharmacognosy in San Diego last month. Professor Christian Hertweck from the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research in Jena, Germany was selected for his contribution to the field of biosynthesis.

NPR Editorial Board Chair Professor Bradley Moore presents Professor Christian Hertweck with his award. Photograph courtesy of Andrew Schultz

The NPR Lecture Award is awarded to a researcher who has made a significant contribution to the field of natural products and who has also had some involvement with the journal. Professor Hertweck has authored a number of articles for NPR and you can view his most recent articles below:

The chemistry and biology of cytochalasans
Kirstin Scherlach, Daniela Boettger, Nicole Remme and Christian Hertweck
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2010, 27, 869-886

Type II polyketide synthases: gaining a deeper insight into enzymatic teamwork
Christian Hertweck, Andriy Luzhetskyy, Yuri Rebets and Andreas Bechthold
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2007, 24, 162-190

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Natural Product Reports Issue 8 now online

The latest issue of NPR is now available to view online here.

The front cover illustrates a review from Massimo E. Maffei describing recent developments in the study of biosynthesis and medicinal applications of plant VOCs.

In this issue you will also find our regular Hot off the Press feature from Robert Hill and Andrew Sutherland covering current developments in bioorganic chemistry and novel natural products, such as virgatolide A from Pestalotiopsis virgatula and a Highlight article from Hans-Georg Sahl and Karin Thevissen on recent reports of specific defensin targets.

M. Soledade C. Pedras focuses on the phytoalexins produced by cruciferous plants and Annabel C. Murphy discusses the use of metabolic engineering for improving the sustainability of the chemical industry. Finally natural products containing a diazo group are reviewed by Christopher J. Moody while Steven V. Ley discusses those containing the piperazic acid motif.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)