Natural Products Blog

We are delighted to welcome Professor Roberto Berlinck (University of São Paulo), Dr Susana P. Gaudêncio (NOVA University of Lisbon), Dr Fidele Ntie-Kang (University of Buea), Dr Reiko Ueoka (Kitasato University) and Professor Weidong Zhang (Second Military Medical University) to the Natural Product Reports team as Advisory Board members.

Roberto is currently a Professor at the University of São Paulo. Research interests of Roberto include the biodiscovery of bioactive natural products, biosynthesis of microbial secondary metabolites, investigating the chemistry of microbe-holobionts associations as well as collaborative projects in synthesis and medicinal chemistry. One of Roberto’s group’s major interests is in developing new approaches towards the isolation of novel natural products. These include compounds from very complex biological matrixes, minor metabolites and water-soluble compounds, as well as methods for the optimisation of microbial metabolite production in order to increase isolation yields.

Susana has a MSc in Technological Organic Chemistry and a PhD in Organic Chemistry and is the Leader of the Blue Biotechnology & Biomedicine Lab at UCIBIO, NOVA-FCT, NOVA University of Lisbon. Her research focuses on the study of marine-derived Actinobacteria from off the coasts of the Portugal mainland and the Macaronesia Archipelagos for the discovery of bioactive natural products as lead-like agents for drug discovery and other biotechnological applications. She is a Working Group Leader, Management Committee Member and STSM Committee Member of the Cost Action Ocean4Biotech: CA18238 – European transdisciplinary networking platform for marine biotechnology. In 2019, she hosted two of the world’s most prestigious congresses in marine natural products, the joint XVI MANAPRO & XI ECMNP in Peniche, Portugal.

Fidele is an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, University of Buea in Cameroon where he also heads the Centre for Drug Discovery. After studying chemistry and physics at the University of Douala in Cameroon, he completed a PhD in computer-aided drug design. He then moved to Germany where he carried out postdoctoral research under Prof. Wolfgang Sippl leading to an habilitation in pharmaceutical chemistry. Since then, his research has been focused on chemoinformatics for natural products research, a topic in which he is an editor of a book series. He holds several editorial board appointments and is passionate about drug discovery from natural products identified from African medicinal plants. His major contribution is the development of the African Natural Products Database.

Reiko Ueoka obtained her PhD (2011) at the University of Tokyo and is currently a Junior Associate Professor at the School of Marine Biosciences, Kitasato University in Japan. Her research focuses on the discovery of novel natural products from bacteria by bioactivity-guided isolation and genome mining. She is also interested in their biosynthesis and the function of the modifying enzymes.

Wei-Dong Zhang is currently a professor of the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development and Second Military Medical University. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree from Second Military Medical University in 1988 and 1991, respectively. He received his PhD in Natural Product Chemistry in 1998 from the Shanghai Institute of Pharmaceutical Industry with Professor Hui-Ting Li. His research focuses on the total synthesis, biological function, structural modification and structure-activity relationship of structurally complex and bioactive natural products.

Find some of their recent RSC publications below:

Visible-light-induced [3+2] cycloadditions of donor/donor diazo intermediates with alkenes to achieve (spiro)-pyrazolines and pyrazoles
Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 10411-10419, DOI: 10.1039/D3SC04188C, Edge Article

Uranyl nitrate as a recyclable homogeneous photocatalyst for selective cross-coupling of N-substituted amines and indoles
RSC. Adv., 2023, 13, 11929-11937, DOI: 10.1039/D3RA01037F, Paper

The isolation of water-soluble natural products – challenges, strategies and perspectives
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2022, 39, 596-669, DOI: 10.1039/D1NP00037C, Review Article

The chemistry and biology of guanidine secondary metabolites
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2021, 38, 586-667, DOI: 10.1039/D0NP00051E, Review Article

Cytotoxic and antitumor peptides as novel chemotherapeutics
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2021, 38, 7-17, DOI: 10.1039/D0NP00019A, Highlight

Post-synthetic functionalization of tryptophan protected peptide sequences through indole (C-2) photocatalytic alkylation
Chem. Commun., 2021, 57, 5758-5761, DOI: 10.1039/D1CC01822A, Communication

In search of therapeutic candidates for HIV/AIDS: rational approaches, design strategies, structure–activity relationship and mechanistic insights
RSC. Adv., 2021, 11, 17936-17964, DOI: 10.1039/D0RA10655K, Review Article

Natural products in Cyperus rotundus L. (Cyperaceae): an update of the chemistry and pharmacological activities
RSC. Adv., 2021, 11, 15070-15077, DOI: 10.1039/D1RA00478F, Review Article

Dereplication: racing to speed up the natural products discovery process
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2015, 32, 779-810, DOI: 10.1039/C4NP00134F, Review Article

Colibactin biosynthesis and biological activity depend on the rare aminomalonyl polyketide precursor
Chem. Commun., 2015, 51, 13138-13141, DOI: 10.1039/C5CC02718G, Communication

Natural Product Reports is delighted to welcome Associate Professor Alessandra Eustáquio and Professor Hidetoshi Tokuyama to the Editorial Board.

About Alessandra

Alessandra holds a BSc in Pharmacy and Biochemistry from the University of São Paulo, Brazil and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Biology from the University of Tübingen, Germany. After undergoing postdoctoral training at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, she was a Principal Scientist in the Natural Products group of Pfizer’s Research & Development site in Connecticut, USA for four years.

She is currently an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research focuses on natural product biosynthesis and the development of synthetic biology tools to facilitate access to natural and engineered molecules. Find out more about Alessandra’s research on her webpage.

About Hidetoshi

Hidetoshi is a Professor at the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University in Japan. He obtained a BSc, MSc and PhD in Chemistry from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1990, 1992 and 1994, respectively, supervised by Professor Eiichi Nakamura. After spending a year as a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Amos B Smith III at the University of Pennsylvania, he started his academic career as an assistant professor in Professor Tohru Fukuyama’s group at the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo in 1996, where he was later promoted to lecturer and associate professor. Since 2006, he has been a full professor at Tohoku University.

His research focuses on the development of synthetic methodologies including highly chemoselective functional group interconversions and the construction of N-containing heterocycles, and the total synthesis of structurally complex natural products. Find out more about Hidetoshi’s research on his webpage.

Natural Product Reports is delighted to welcome Dr Cassandra L. Quave to the Editorial Board.

About Cassandra:

Dr Cassandra Quave is Curator of the Herbarium and Associate Professor of Dermatology and Human Health at Emory University, USA, where she leads natural product drug discovery research initiatives and teaches courses on medicinal plants, microbiology, and pharmacology. She obtained a B.Sc. in Biology and Anthropology (Emory University, 2000) and a Ph.D. in Biology (Florida International University, 2008).

Dr. Quave’s research is supported by the NIH, industry contracts, and philanthropy. She is a Fellow of the Explorers Club, a past President of the Society for Economic Botany, a recipient of the Emory Williams Teaching Award and Charles Heiser, Jr. Mentor Award. She is the host of Foodie Pharmacology, a podcast dedicated to exploring the links between food and medicine. Dr Quave has authored more than 100 scientific publications, two edited books, and seven patents. Her research has been the subject of feature profiles in the New York Times Magazine, BBC Science Focus, National Geographic Magazine, Brigitte Magazin, NPR, PBS, and the National Geographic Channel. She is the author of a science memoir entitled The Plant Hunter: One Scientist’s Quest for Nature’s Next Medicines.

As a medical ethnobotanist, Cassandra’s work focuses on the documentation and pharmacological evaluation of plants used in traditional medicine. Find out more about about Cassandra’s research on her webpage.

Prof. Heike Brötz-Oesterhelt

Natural Product Reports is delighted to welcome Professor Heike Brötz-Oesterhelt to the Editorial Board.

Heike Brötz-Oesterhelt holds a degree in Microbiology from the University of Bonn. After her PhD in 1997, she joined the Anti-Infectives Research Department of Bayer HealthCare, leading hit and lead discovery teams for 8 years. In 2004, she co-founded the anti-infective biotech company AiCuris, Wuppertal, Germany. She returned to academia as a professor for Pharmaceutical Biology at the University of Duesseldorf in 2010, and four years later became Chair of the Department of Microbial Bioactive Compounds at the University of Tuebingen. She is speaker of the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre TRR261 ‘Cellular Mechanisms of Antibiotic Action and Production’ and co-speaker of the Cluster of Excellence “Controlling Microbes to Fight Infection”.

Heike is particularly interested in the molecular mechanisms of new antibacterial natural products and the operation modes of novel antibiotic targets. Find out more about Heike’s research on her webpage, or by reading her Open Access NPR article below:

Conformational control of the bacterial Clp protease by natural product antibiotics