Natural Products Blog

As the new year gets underway we would like to share some changes to our Editorial Board.

Editorial Board Retirements

After 6 years with Natural Product Reports we are very sorry to see Professors David L. Jakeman and Stefan Schulz step down from their roles on the Editorial Board. We would like to take this opportunity to thank both David and Stefan for all of their time and effort over the past 6 years, helping to make the journal the success it is today. Thank you!

However, we are pleased to say that although David and Stefan may be leaving the Editorial Board they will not be leaving us entirely. Both are now members of the Advisory Board for the journal and we look forward to continue working with them in the future in this new role.

Prof. David L. Jakeman

Prof. Stefan Schulz

New Editorial Board Members

We would also like to take this opportunity to welcome some new faces to the Natural Product Reports family.

Prof. Giovanni Appendino

Professor Giovanni Appendino, Universita del Piemonte Orientale, Italy.

Professor Giovanni Appendino did his Laurea Degree at the University of Torino (Italy) in 1979. He did Post-Laurea work at the Laboratory of Organic Synthesis, University of Gent (Belgium) with Prof. Pierre De Clercq. He has been a Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Università del Piemonte Orientale, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Novara (Italy), since 2000.

Research activity in his laboratories takes inspiration from plant natural products to address problems in various realms of biomedical investigation, from pharmacology and nutrition (new drug leads and health-promoting dietary ingredients) to organic/medicinal chemistry (new synthetic methodologies and optimization of natural product drug leads) and cell biology (novel mechanisms of activity).

Prof. Mark Brönstrup

Professor Mark Brönstrup, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Germany

Mark Brönstrup studied Chemistry at the Philipps-Universität Marburg and at the Imperial College in London. In 1999 he received his doctorate from the Technical University Berlin in Organic Chemistry. After his graduation, he worked from 2000 to 2004 as a laboratory head for Mass Spectrometry at Aventis, complemented by a research sabbatical in 2003 at Harvard Medical School. From 2005 to 2010 he led the Natural Product Sciences section at Sanofi-Aventis in Frankfurt with the goal of discovering leads from natural sources and optimising them to clinical candidates. He dealt with translational research projects from 2010 to 2013 as a section head for Biomarkers & Diagnostics in the Diabetes Division, and a domain head for Biomarkers, Bioimaging & Biological Assays at Sanofi. Since December 2013, he heads the department Chemical Biology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research; additionally, he holds a Professorship (W3) at the Leibniz Universität Hannover.

Mark Brönstrup’s research uses chemical biology tools to understand mechanisms for the treatment of infectious diseases.

Professors Appendino and Brönstrup began their roles as Editorial Board members from January 2015, and we look forward to working closely with them over the coming months and years.

We are very pleased to welcome two new members to our Editorial Board this month: Professor Julia Kubanek (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) and Professor Wen Liu (Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, China).

Professor Julia Kubanek

Prof. Kubanek received her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1998 from the University of British Columbia. Following this she held postdoctoral positions at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University California San Diego (1998–2000) and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (2000–2001). In 2001 she joined the Georgia Institute of Technology becoming a Professor in 2011.

Her current areas of interest include:

Aquatic chemical ecology; Chemical signaling; Chemical communication; Marine natural products chemistry; Chemical biology; Secondary metabolism; Drug discovery; Plankton ecology; Metabolomics

“I’ve been reading Natural Product Reports since I was a graduate student in the early 1990’s. I’m pleased to join the NPR family as a member of the Editorial Board and looking forward to working with authors to bring important research to the attention of the natural products chemistry community.” Prof. Julia Kubanek

Professor Wen Liu

Prof. Wen Liu obtained his Ph.D. degree from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (Peking Union Medical School) in 2000. After postdoctoral studies at the Department of Chemistry, University of California, Davis (2000-2001), and the School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2001-2003), he joined the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003.

His research interests focus on:
1) natural product biosynthesis (genetics, biochemistry and chemistry)
2) combinatorial biosynthesis for production improvement and structural diversity
3) genome and/or transcriptome mining for discovery of novel microbial natural products

Natural Product Reports is delighted to announce Professor Greg Challis (University of Warwick, UK) as a new Editorial Board member. 

Greg Challis graduated with a BSc in Chemistry (1994) from Imperial College London and a DPhil in Organic Chemistry (1998) from the University of Oxford. He was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University, USA (1998-2000) and in the Department of Genetics at the John Innes Centre, UK (2000-2001). In 2001 he was appointed to a lectureship in Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick and in 2006 he was promoted to his present position of Professor of Chemical Biology.

Challis’s research interests encompass diverse aspects of the chemistry and biology of natural products, including genomics-driven discovery of new bioactive metabolites, elucidation of novel pathways for natural product biosynthesis, mechanistic enzymology of unusual biosynthetic enzymes, biosynthetic engineering approaches to the production of novel natural product derivatives, elucidation of the biological functions of natural products, and natural product total synthesis. His research achievements have been recognised by numerous honours and awards, most recently the Gabor Medal (2009).

Why not read some of Greg Challis’s latest NPR contributions to NPR:

New natural product biosynthetic chemistry discovered by genome mining
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2009,26, 977-986

Ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptide natural products: overview and recommendations for a universal nomenclature
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2013,30, 108-160 (bottromycins section)

NPR benefits from the expertise of exceptional scientists guiding the development of the journal.
 Find out more on our Editorial and Advisory Board members!

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Daniel Romo to the Editorial Board of Natural Products Reports, as of January 2013. 

Daniel Romo received his B.A. in chemistry/biology from Texas A&M and a PhD in Chemistry from Colorado State University as a NSF Minority Graduate Fellow under the tutelage of the late Prof. Albert I. Meyers. Following postdoctoral studies at Harvard as an American Cancer Society Fellow, with Prof. Stuart L. Schreiber, he began his independent career at TexasA&M in 1993 and is currently Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Natural Products LINCPHIN Laboratory (TAMU).

Research interests in the Romo Group are at the interface of chemistry and biology focused on total synthesis and biomechanistic studies of natural products and the asymmetric synthesis and application of beta-lactones in organic synthesis and as potential drug candidates. This search led Romo to examine marine specimens –  many recent bioactive molecules have been discovered in marine species that are now making their way to the clinic.
Romo sees natural products as playgrounds for developing new synthetic strategies and making related compounds with potentially important therapeutic applications. Natural products are keys to cell biology, and he is working to build the bridge between synthesis and biology.

‘If I couldn’t be dreaming up ways to make natural products, I would want to be diving to isolate those natural products and fishing from the deck on my off time!’ says Daniel.

Why not read Daniel Romo’s latest NPR review article:

Biosynthesis, asymmetric synthesis, and pharmacology, including cellular targets, of the pyrrole-2-aminoimidazole marine alkaloids
Ali Al-Mourabit, Manuel A. Zancanella, Supriya Tilvi and Daniel Romo
DOI: 10.1039/C0NP00013B