Functional Molecules from Natural Sources

Naturally occurring compounds, or natural products, have been and continue to be an important source of commercially successful products and leads in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and nutritional sectors. The conference Functional Molecules from Natural Sources, which was held at Magdalen College, Oxford in July 2009, set out to highlight current trends, challenges and successes in the exploitation of natural products from microbial, plant and marine sources. This book is based on the proceedings of the conference and comprises modern and emerging perspectives on natural product utilization and improved strategies for their exploitation. Several case studies on important natural product leads, or functional molecules, are presented with the strategy for their development. These detail new medical applications in the use of familiar natural molecules and advances in the understanding and manipulation of natural product biosynthesis at the genetic level. Highlights include an authoritative review of the entire field of natural anticancer agents emphasising those currently in clinical development, an account of the optimisation of the pleuromutilin antibiotic template for human use and a comprehensive description of the research programme that resulted in the discovery of platensimycin. Articles on biosynthesis include studies of the antibiotics of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2), the anthrax siderophore petrobactin and the modification of oxidation and glycosylation events in the biosynthesis of mithramycins. Written by leading industrial and academic practitioners from each sector, the book offers authoritative updates on new approaches to the use of naturally occurring compounds within the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and agrochemical industries.

Stephen K. Wrigley has worked in the field of industrial natural products discovery and development for twenty five years. He is currently Chief Technical Officer at Hypha Discovery Ltd., a company exploring basidiomycetes as a source of pharmaceutical lead compounds. He previously held managerial and scientific positions focusing on microbial products discovery at RecombinoGen, Ltd., Cubist Pharmaceuticals (UK) Ltd, TerraGen Discovery, Inc., Xenova Ltd. and Glaxo Group Research Ltd. after obtaining BSc and PhD degrees in chemistry at Imperial College, London. Robert Thomas has been involved in natural products research for over sixty years, completing his PhD on fungal metabolite structure elucidation in 1951 at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. After working for the CSIRO in Australia and following postdoctoral studies in Canada and London, he joined the Squibb Institute for Medical Research in New Jersey. He subsequently held senior teaching positions at Imperial College, London and the University of Surrey and founded the plant product-based biotechnology company Biotics Ltd., based primarily at the University of Sussex. Professor Thomas was the chairman of the organising committee for Functional Molecules from Natural Sources and two previous natural products conferences organised by the RSC Biotechnology Group. Colin T. Bedford gained chemistry degrees from the Universities of Manchester and Glasgow and pursued postdoctoral research on the isolation, characterisation, biosynthesis and biomimetic synthesis of natural products at the Universities of Oxford, Sussex and British Columbia. He then joined Shell Research's Tunstall Laboratory undertaking research in chemical toxicology, where he progressed to Principal Scientist. He was then appointed to a senior lectureship at the University of Westminster pursuing research in natural product biosynthesis. Currently he is an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London. Following graduation with a London degree in physiology and chemistry, Neville Nicholson spent five years at the Chemical Defence Establishment at Porton Down before joining Beecham Pharmaceuticals. He remained with this company in its various forms for thirty years, participating in the elucidation of the biosynthetic pathway of the ?-lactamase inhibitor, clavulanic acid, and more recently specialising as a medicinal chemist with particular interests in small molecules of natural origin. He is now pursuing these interests as an Independent Scientist.