Natural Products Blog

Natural Product Reports is delighted to welcome Professor Roger Linington to the Editorial Board.

About Roger

Professor Linington received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Leeds and his Ph.D. in natural products chemistry from the University of British Columbia in Canada. He started his independent academic career at the University of California Santa Cruz before moving back to Canada in 2015. He is currently a Professor of Chemistry at Simon Fraser University where he holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Natural Products and High-Throughput Screening. 

His research program focuses on developing new tools in 1) chemical characterization of complex mixtures, 2) phenotypic fingerprinting of bioactive metabolites and 3) creation of informatics platforms to integrate chemical and biological datasets. Professor Linington’s research program integrates wet lab science in small molecule characterization with informatics tool development through the creation of open-source databases, webservers and informatics pipelines for small molecule discovery and characterization.

He has interests in both the practical aspects of small molecule identification and the technical aspects of developing new computational methods in this area. This includes separation science, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, database design, and algorithm development. His team maintains the Natural Products Atlas (www.npatlas.org), a database of all known microbial metabolites.

Find out more about Roger and his group on their website.

We are delighted to welcome Professor Craig Williams (The University of Queensland), and Professor Christopher Boddy (University of Ottawa), and Dr. Sandra Loesgen (University of Florida) to the Natural Product Reports team as Advisory Board Members.

	Craig Williams completed his BSc (Hons) and PhD (1997) at Flinders University of South Australia and is now Associate Professor at University of Queensland. His research is on investigating strategies towards the total synthesis of very complex natural products and designing and discovering novel biologically active molecules for use as medicines in cancer, Alzheimer’s and for pain treatments.
Sandra Loesgen is currently Associate Professor of Chemistry at the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, and part of the Chemistry Department at University of Florida. Her research focuses on the identification and development of drug leads from the metabolic products of microbial organisms, with a special emphasis on endophytic fungi and rare actinomycetes. In particular, her research program currently focuses on the discovery of new anticancer, antimicrobial, and antiviral compounds from microbial sources.
	Christopher Boddy is currently Professor at the University of Ottawa. His research is on harnessing biosynthetic pathways to produce complex molecules. His group uses synthetic chemistry and biochemistry to try to determine how microorganisms construct complex biologically active molecules and to use these biosynthetic pathways to produce complex natural products and their analogs. The goal is to develop enzyme inhibitors, study mechanisms of action, or determine structure-activity relationships.

Find some of their most recent RSC publications below:

Key achievements in the total synthesis of vibsane-type diterpenoids
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2012, 29, 440-448, DOI: 10.1039/C2NP00067A, Highlight

The value of universally available raw NMR data for transparency, reproducibility, and integrity in natural product research
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2019, 36, 35-107, DOI: 10.1039/C7NP00064B, Review Article

The clerodane ring system: investigating the viability of a direct Diels–Alder approach
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, 9, 4745-4747, DOI: 10.1039/C1OB05422H, Communication

Correction: The value of universally available raw NMR data for transparency, reproducibility, and integrity in natural product research
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2019, 36, 248-249, DOI: 10.1039/C8NP90041H, Correction

Pharmaceuticals that contain polycyclic hydrocarbon scaffolds
Chem. Soc. Rev., 2015, 44, 7737-7763, DOI: 10.1039/C4CS00477A, Review Article

Copper(I)-catalyzed cycloaddition of silver acetylides and azides: Incorporation of volatile acetylenes into the triazole core
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, 9, 6082-6088, DOI: 10.1039/C1OB05360D, Paper

EBC-318 and 339: bicyclo[10.2.1]alkanes from Croton insularis
RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 25110-25113, DOI: 10.1039/C6RA02599D, Communication

Competition between cluster fragmentation, C–C bond coupling and C–X bond activation in silver hexynyl cluster cations, [(C4H9CCAg)nAg]+. Size does matter!
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2009, 11, 4132-4135, DOI: 10.1039/B904687A, Communication

Croton insularis introduces the seco-casbane class with EBC-329 and the first casbane endoperoxide EBC-324
Chem. Commun., 2014, 50, 12315-12317, DOI: 10.1039/C4CC05413J, Communication

1,4-Diazacubane crystal structure rectified as piperazinium
Chem. Commun., 2019, 55, 11751-11753, DOI: 10.1039/C9CC06272F, Communication

N,N,N′,N′-Tetramethylenediamine dioxide (TMEDAO2) facilitates atom economical/open atmosphere Ley–Griffith (TPAP) tandem oxidation-Wittig reactions
Green Chem., 2015, 17, 4537-4540, DOI: 10.1039/C5GC01346A, Communication

Enantioselective total synthesis of (−)-neovibsanin G and (−)-14-epi-neovibsanin G
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 287-289, DOI: 10.1039/C1CC15995J, Communication

7-Step total synthesis of (+)-EBC-329: Photoisomerisation reveals new seco-casbane family member
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2017, 15, 7102-7105, DOI: 10.1039/C7OB01400G, Communication

N-Oxides rescue Ru(V) in catalytic Griffith–Ley (TPAP) alcohol oxidations
Chem. Commun., 2016, 52, 10301-10304, DOI: 10.1039/C6CC05440D, Communication

A concise total synthesis of (±)-cipadonoid B from synthetic azedaralide
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 2258-2260, DOI: 10.1039/C0CC04698A, Communication

Enantioselective synthesis of (R)-2-cubylglycine including unprecedented rhodium mediated C–H insertion of cubane
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2019, 17, 1067-1070, DOI: 10.1039/C8OB02959H, Communication

Unprecedented photochemical induced cascading rearrangement of the 3-azabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane skeleton
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2004, 2, 806-807, DOI: 10.1039/B402200A, Communication

Experimental determination of the gas phase proton affinities of the conjugate base anions of 2-iodoxybenzoic acid (IBX) and 2-iodosobenzoic acid (IBA)
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2008, 6, 2530-2533, DOI: 10.1039/B803452D, Paper

Elucidating the mechanism of the Ley–Griffith (TPAP) alcohol oxidation
Chem. Sci., 2017, 8, 8435-8442, DOI: 10.1039/C7SC04260D, Edge Article

The cubane paradigm in bioactive molecule discovery: further scope, limitations and the cyclooctatetraene complement
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2019, 17, 6790-6798, DOI: 10.1039/C9OB01238A, Paper

sp–sp3 Coupling reactions of alkynylsilver cations, RC[triple bond, length as m-dash]CAg2+ (R = Me and Ph) with allyliodide
Dalton Trans., 2013, 42, 9462-9467, DOI: 10.1039/C2DT32143B, Paper

Polyketide synthase and non-ribosomal peptide synthetase thioesterase selectivity: logic gate or a victim of fate?
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2016, 33, 183-202, DOI: 10.1039/C4NP00148F, Review Article

The role of transcription in heterologous expression of polyketides in bacterial hosts
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2013, 30, 1391-1411, DOI: 10.1039/C3NP70060G, Review Article

Chemoenzymatic macrocycle synthesis using resorcylic acid lactone thioesterase domains
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2018, 16, 5771-5779, DOI: 10.1039/C8OB01512K, Paper

The Natural Product Reports Emerging Investigator Lectureship recognises a researcher who has made a significant contribution to a natural products-related area of the chemical sciences in their early independent career.

We are delighted to announce that Professor Alison Narayan has been chosen by the Natural Product Reports Editorial Board to receive the 2020 Natural Product Reports Emerging Investigator Lectureship.

Her lab is interested in harnessing the powerful reactivity and selectivity of chemistry that exists in nature, to develop new tools and approaches for creating biologically interesting and beneficial molecules.

More about Alison…

Alison obtained an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan before pursuing a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2012, she joined the Sherman lab at the University of Michigan as a postdoctoral research fellow and in 2015, Alison began her independent career at University of Michigan as an assistant professor.  Alison’s main research interest is identifiying enzymes from secondary metabolite pathways with potential synthetic utility and developing methods based on these biocatalysts to enable access to biologically active target molecules.

Mo receiving the NPR Emerging Investigator Lectureship

Earlier this year, Natural Product Reports was delighted to announce that Professor Mohammad R. “Mo” Seyedsayamdost was chosen by the Natural Product Reports Editorial Board to receive the 2019 Natural Product Reports Emerging Investigator Lectureship, which he has now been awarded at the recent ACS Orlando symposium.

The Natural Product Reports Emerging Investigator Lectureship recognises a researcher who has made a significant contribution to a natural products-related area of the chemical sciences in their early independent career.

“It is an honor and a privilege to receive the NPR Emerging Investigator Lectureship.

I am grateful to the selection committee, my mentors (Liz, JoAnne, Jon, and Roberto) for their constant support, as well as the members of my lab for their hard work.” – Prof. Mo Seyedsayamdost

More about Mo…

Mo obtained an undergraduate degree from Brandeis University and completed his thesis in the laboratory of Prof. Lizbeth Hedstrom. He then joined the Department of Chemistry at MIT and earned a PhD degree under the guidance of Prof. JoAnne Stubbe. His PhD thesis investigated the mechanism of long-range radical transfer in class I ribonucleotide reductases. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School in the research groups of Prof. Jon Clardy and Prof. Roberto Kolter, where he examined the roles of natural products in mediating microbial interspecies interactions. In 2013, Mo started his independent career at Princeton University, where his lab is interested in the discovery, structure, function, and biosynthesis of natural products from microbial sources, with an emphasis on bioactive cryptic metabolites. These studies blend approaches from microbiology, bacterial genetics, natural product chemistry, and enzymology.

Welcome to NPR Issue 2, 2013

Issue 2s, home to the much awaited Marine Natural Products review by John Blunt et al., and much more.

Featuring on the front cover is the work of Jorge A. R. Salvador, M. Luisa Sá e Melo and colleagues at University of Coimbra and Universidade da Beira Interior (Portugal), illustrating their review detailing the anticancer activity of steroids.

In this issue:

Hot off the press
Robert A. Hill and Andrew Sutherland
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP90051C

A personal selection of 33 recent papers is presented covering various aspects of current developments in bioorganic chemistry and novel natural products such as breitfussin A from the Arctic hydrozoan Thuiaria breitfussi.

Biosynthesis of thiopeptide antibiotics and their pathway engineering
Qi Zhang and Wen Liu
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP20107K

A Highlight including advances during 2009–2012 in understanding the generality and specificity of thiopeptide biosynthesis, and on this basis, in expanding the structural diversity by pathway engineering.

 α-Haloaldehydes: versatile building blocks for natural product synthesis
Robert Britton and Baldip Kang
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP20108A

This Highlight summarizes the organocatalytic processes available for the enantioselective preparation of α-haloaldehydes and their stereoselective conversion into natural products.

Marine natural products
John W. Blunt, Brent R. Copp, Robert A. Keyzers, Murray H. G. Munro and Michèle R. Prinsep
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP20112G

The much awaited Marine Natural Products review article! Included is an example of the development of genome mining for the discovery of new compounds from marine microbes leading to the finding of salinosporamide K from Salinispora pacifica.

Missed the previous ones? Catch up with the past 5 years of this series:
Marine Natural Products – 2012
Marine Natural Products – 2011
Marine Natural Products – 2010
Marine Natural Products – 2009
Marine Natural Products – 2008

Anticancer steroids: linking natural and semi-synthetic compounds
Jorge A. R. Salvador, João F. S. Carvalho, Marco A. C. Neves, Samuel M. Silvestre, Alcino J. Leitão, M. Manuel C. Silva and M. Luisa Sá e Melo
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP20082A

Steroids, a widespread class of natural compounds, have shown great therapeutic value for a broad array of pathologies. This overview is focused on their anticancer activity, which is very representative of a rich structural diversity and ability to interact with various biological targets and pathways.

Want to see your work in NPR?

Reviews, Highlights and Viewpoints in NPR are generally solicited by members of the editorial board; however we are happy to consider submission enquiries from authors. If you are interested in writing an article for NPR please contact the editorial office with a brief synopsis.

Welcome to NPR Issue 12, 2012

This month sees the work of Roberto Berlinck et al. on the cover, with a review showcasing naturally occurring guanidine compounds. Spanning natural guanidines from terrestrial, marine and freshwater microorganisms, marine invertebrates, sponges, or higher plants, the article highlights the newly isolated compounds along with their synthesis and biological properties.

The chemistry and biology of organic guanidine derivatives
Roberto G. S. Berlinck, Amaro E. Trindade-Silva and Mario F. C. Santos

This is the latest review on the topic, however this area is updated regularly. Why not also read some of the previous editions of this review, covering the time periods 2005/07, 2008/09.

Issue 12 also features the latest Hot of the Press, and reviews covering:

The impact of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity on natural products research
Gordon M. Cragg, Flora Katz, David J. Newman and Joshua Rosenthal
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP20091K

Investigations of the marine flora and fauna of the Fiji Islands
Klaus-Dieter Feussner, Kavita Ragini, Rohitesh Kumar, Katy M. Soapi, William G. Aalbersberg, Mary Kay Harper, Brad Carte and Chris M. Ireland
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP20055D

Ursane-type pentacyclic triterpenoids as useful platforms to discover anticancer drugs
Jorge A. R. Salvador, Vânia M. Moreira, Bruno M. F. Gonçalves, Ana S. Leal and Yongkui Jing
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP20060K

We hope you enjoy the issue!

And why not publish with us too? If you are interested in writing an article for NPR, please contact us at the editorial office.

This month sees the following articles in Natural Product Reports that are in the top ten most accessed:

Marine natural products
John W. Blunt, Brent R. Copp, Robert A. Keyzers, Murray H. G. Munro and Michèle R. Prinsep
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2012, 29, 144-222
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP00090C

Natural products as kinase inhibitors
Jing Liu, Yi Hu, David L. Waller, Junfeng Wang and Qingsong Liu
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2012, 29, 392-403
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP00097K

Electrophilic and nucleophilic enzymatic cascade reactions in biosynthesis
Barbara T. Ueberbacher, Mélanie Hall and Kurt Faber
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2012, 29, 337-350
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP00078D

Advances in Aspergillus secondary metabolite research in the post-genomic era
James F. Sanchez, Amber D. Somoza, Nancy P. Keller and Clay C. C. Wang
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2012, 29, 351-371
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP00084A

Hot off the press
Robert A. Hill and Andrew Sutherland
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2012, 29, 129-133
DOI: 10.1039/C1NP90052H

The chemical ecology of cyanobacteria
Pedro N. Leão, Niclas Engene, Agostinho Antunes, William H. Gerwick and Vitor Vasconcelos
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2012, 29, 372-391
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP00075J

Influenza neuraminidase: A druggable target for natural products
Ulrike Grienke, Michaela Schmidtke, Susanne von Grafenstein, Johannes Kirchmair, Klaus R. Liedl and Judith M. Rollinger
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2012, 29, 11-36
DOI: 10.1039/C1NP00053E

Key achievements in the total synthesis of vibsane-type diterpenoids
Jeffrey Y. W. Mak and Craig M. Williams
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2012, 29, 440-448
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP00067A

Triptolide: structural modifications, structure–activity relationships, bioactivities, clinical development and mechanisms
Zhao-Li Zhou, Ya-Xi Yang, Jian Ding, Yuan-Chao Li and Ze-Hong Miao
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2012, 29, 457-475
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP00088A

The taxonomy, biology and chemistry of the fungal Pestalotiopsis genus
Xiao-Long Yang, Jing-Ze Zhang and Du-Qiang Luo
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2NP00073C

Why not take a look at the articles today and blog your thoughts and comments below.

Fancy submitting an article to Natural Product Reports? Then why not submit to us today or alternatively email us your suggestions.

Welcome to NPR issue 3, 2012!

This month’s cover features the work of Kurt Faber et al. at the University of Graz, Austria, with a review on the enzyme-initiated cascade reactions for the ring formation of cyclic terpenoids and polyethers. The authors provide a mechanistic analysis of enzymatic cascade reactions leading to biomimetic strategies for natural product synthesis. 

• Electrophilic and nucleophilic enzymatic cascade reactions in biosynthesis
  Barbara T. Ueberbacher , Mélanie Hall and Kurt Faber

Also in the issue, read Clay C. C. Wang‘s review article on the  impact of whole genome sequencing on Aspergillus secondary metabolite research:

• Advances in Aspergillus secondary metabolite research in the post-genomic era
  James F. Sanchez , Amber D. Somoza , Nancy P. Keller and Clay C. C. Wang

Pedro N. Leão and coworkers provide insights into the chemical ecology of cyanobacteria, highlighting both evolutionary and chemotaxonomical studies:

• The chemical ecology of cyanobacteria
  Pedro N. Leão, Niclas Engene, Agostinho Antunes, William H. Gerwick and Vitor Vasconcelos

Qingsong Liu et al. review the history of several classes of natural products as kinase inhibitors, analyzing their structural binding information and highlighting their therapeutic development potential:

• Natural products as kinase inhibitors
  Jing Liu, Yi Hu, David L. Waller, Junfeng Wang and Qingsong Liu

Why not also read on the didemnin family of marine depsipeptides in this review article by Madeleine M. Joullié et al..  The authors highlight the long-standing study of didemnins and its critical application towards the understanding of the molecular mechanism of action of tamandarins and their potential use as therapeutic agents:

• Didemnins, tamandarins and related natural products
  Jisun Lee, Judith N. Currano, Patrick J. Carroll and Madeleine M. Joullié

 We hope that you enjoy this issue!

View the issue