Editorial pubs.acs.org/jnp
Special Issue in Honor of Professors John W. Blunt and Murray H. G. Munro
T
he Guest Editors for this special issue of the Journal of Natural Products are delighted to bring readers a diverse collection of papers, reviews, and notes on natural product sciences dedicated to our colleagues Professors (Emeritus) John W. Blunt and Murray H. G. Munro. Murray joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1968, with John joining shortly after in 1970. Prior to this, John, who had degrees from Canterbury, had undertaken postdoctoral studies in biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin Madison and with Sir Ewart Jones at the Dyson Perrins Laboratory, Oxford. Murray in the meantime had undertaken a Ph.D. in diterpene chemistry at the University of Otago followed by postdoctoral studies with Sir Alan Battersby at the University of Liverpool. During their subsequent distinguished careers at the University of Canterbury, they jointly coauthored over 160 scientific papers, around 20 patents, and eight book chapters. In the early 1970s, Murray spent sabbatical leave with Prof. Kenneth Rinehart at the University of Illinois at Urbana− Champaign. This and subsequent visits established a collaboration in the, at the time, new field of marine natural products chemistry. Experience in Rinehart’s operations saw Murray and John establish the Marine Chemistry Group at the University of Canterbury, with a large and dynamic team involved with organism collection, taxonomy, bioassays, and isolation. With in-house antileukemia, cytotoxicity, antiviral, and antimicrobial assays and an essentially untapped resource of New Zealand biodiversity, it was not surprising that important discoveries were to follow. Indeed, the 1970s and 1980s were extremely exciting and productive times, with the discovery of many bioactive natural products including the discorhabdins,1 mycalamides,2 and pateamine3 as well as the discovery of a new source of the halichondrins.4 During this time period, Murray and John were the exception to the rule for New Zealand academics, having considerable success in attracting both domestic and international funding for their work. Despite this, the much vaunted kiwi can-do mentality persisted, with all new students joining the group in the 1980s required to complete the rite of passage of making their own supply of C185 and learning how to use alligator clips to “hot-wire” the 1 H decoupler board of a Varian XL-300 spectrometer in order to acquire inverse-detected data on an otherwise “normal” detection instrument. Also developed out of necessity through this time period was a database of publications in the field of marine natural products; thus Marinlit was born. This database would grow beyond being a simple catalogue of publications, to ultimately include structures, geotags, and spectroscopic data, making it an indispensable tool in dereplication. Since 2003 the database has provided the core source material for the annual review of marine natural products published in Natural Products Reports.6 The National Cancer Institute (NCI) natural products program has had long-standing and fruitful collaboration with © 2016 American Chemical Society and American Society of Pharmacognosy
Figure 1. Drs. Munro and Blunt with a frozen sample of Lissodendoryx sp. Photo coutesy of Stacy Squires/Fairfax NZ.
John and Murray, and they have made significant contributions to both the drug discovery and development processes. John visited the NCI for 13 months in 1990−1991 and again for 7 months in 1997, and his NMR knowledge and expertise were invaluable in the completion of several important projects, including the isolation and structural elucidation of anti-HIV michellamines from the Cameroonian plant Ancistrocladus korupensis.7 Murray spent a year at the NCI in 1991−1992 and was closely involved in the development of procedures for the dereplication and prioritization of HIV-active aqueous extracts.8 John and Murray later played an indispensable role in coordinating the large-scale collection of the deep water sponge Lissodendoryx sp., proudly displayed in the photo, from the Kaikoura shelf off the east coast of New Zealand South Island, and the subsequent shallow water aquaculture of the sponge (in conjunction with Chris Battershill), enabling the provision of sufficient supplies of halichondrin B to confirm its exceptional promise as a novel anticancer agent. One of us (D.N.) recalls the fun of a significant number of trips to NZ during the work leading up to the large-scale isolation of 310 mg of pure halichondrin B from 1000 kg of sponge. The successful synthesis of halichondrin B by the Kishi group at Harvard led to the eventual development of the simpler analogue, eribulin, which was approved for the treatment of advanced breast cancer in 2010. Marine natural products have not been the sole focus of their research. In collaboration with Tony Cole (U Canterbury) they have also been examining the natural product potential of New Zealand and Malaysian terrestrial and marine fungi and actinomycetes, NZ native endophytes, and entomopathogenic fungi.9 Special Issue: Special Issue in Honor of John Blunt and Murray Munro Published: March 25, 2016 453
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.6b00079 J. Nat. Prod. 2016, 79, 453−454
Journal of Natural Products
Editorial
Murray’s and John’s contributions to the field have been recognized through numerous joint awards including the University of Canterbury Research Medal in 2007, the Paul J. Scheuer Award at the 2008 Marine Natural Products Gordon Research Conference, and the Norman R. Farnsworth Research Achievement Award from the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP) in 2011 and were elected as Fellows of the Society by the ASP in 2012. In addition, John received the Royal Society of Chemistry Natural Product Reports lecture award in 2006. Between them, John and Murray supervised 29 Ph.D., 31 M.Sc., and 27 undergraduate honors students as well as 13 postdoctoral research associates. Many of these “academic offspring” have gone on to fill industrial and academic positions and to continue their passion for natural products chemistry instilled during their time at Canterbury. In addition, a number of technicians and bioassay and organism collection staffs were associated with their research over the years. They also hosted many visiting scholars, including the late John Faulkner as an Erskine Fellow. In closing, the Guest Editors would like to thank the authors of the various contributions to this special issue. As evident, these papers are reflective of the diverse range of research undertaken by Murray Munro and John Blunt and pay tribute to their contribution to and influence on the field of natural products research.
(8) Cardellina, J. H., 2nd; Munro, M. H. G.; Fuller, R. W.; Manfredi, K. P.; McKee, T. C.; Tischler, M.; Bokesch, H. R.; Gustafson, K. R.; Beutler, J. A.; Boyd, M. R. J. Nat. Prod. 1993, 56, 1123−1129. (9) Dilip de Silva, E.; Geiermann, A.-S.; Mitova, M. I.; Kuegler, P.; Blunt, J. W.; Cole, A. L. J.; Munro, M. H. G. J. Nat. Prod. 2009, 72, 477−479.
Brent R. Copp University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Gordon M. Cragg NIH Special Volunteer, Bethesda, Maryland
David J. Newman NIH Special Volunteer, Wayne, Pennsylvania
Cedric J. Pearce
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Mycosynthetix, Inc., Hillsborough, North Carolina
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the authors and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
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REFERENCES
(1) (a) Perry, N. B.; Blunt, J. W.; McCombs, J. D.; Munro, M. H. G. J. Org. Chem. 1986, 51, 5476−5478. (b) Perry, N. B.; Blunt, J. W.; Munro, M. H. G. Tetrahedron 1988, 44, 1727−1734. (c) Perry, N. B.; Blunt, J. W.; Munro, M. H. G.; Higa, T.; Sakai, R. J. Org. Chem. 1988, 53, 4127−4128. (d) Copp, B. R.; Fulton, K. F.; Perry, N. B.; Blunt, J. W.; Munro, M. H. G. J. Org. Chem. 1994, 59, 8233−8238. (2) (a) Perry, N. B.; Blunt, J. W.; Munro, M. H. G.; Pannell, L. K. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1988, 110, 4850−4851. (b) Perry, N. B.; Blunt, J. W.; Munro, M. H. G.; Thompson, A. M. J. Org. Chem. 1990, 55, 223−227. (3) Northcote, P. T.; Blunt, J. W.; Munro, M. H. G. Tetrahedron Lett. 1991, 32, 6411−6414. (4) (a) Litaudon, M.; Hart, J. B.; Blunt, J. W.; Lake, R. J.; Munro, M. H. G. Tetrahedron Lett. 1994, 35, 9435−9438. (b) Litaudon, M.; Hickford, S. J. H.; Lill, R. E.; Lake, R. J.; Blunt, J. W.; Munro, M. H. G. J. Org. Chem. 1997, 62, 1868−1871. (c) Hickford, S. J. H.; Blunt, J. W.; Munro, M. H. G. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2009, 17, 2199−2203. (5) Blunt, J. W.; Calder, V. L.; Fenwick, G. D.; Lake, R. J.; McCombs, J. D.; Munro, M. H. G.; Perry, N. B. J. Nat. Prod. 1987, 50, 290−292. (6) Blunt, J. W.; Copp, B. R.; Keyzers, R. A.; Munro, M. H. G.; Prinsep, M. R. Nat. Prod. Rep. 2015, 32, 116−211. (7) Boyd, M. R.; Hallock, Y.; Manfredi, K. P.; Blunt, J. W.; McMahon, J. B.; Buckheit, R. W.; Bringmann, G.; Schaffer, M.; Cragg, G. M.; Thomas, D. W.; Jato, J. G.; Cardellina, J. H. J. Med. Chem. 1994, 37, 1740−1745. 454
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.6b00079 J. Nat. Prod. 2016, 79, 453−454
